Renouvable Energy Age : SOcial NoticeS – REASONS

The chair conducts two types of research in parallel:
• The study of background phenomena, namely social media mobilisation (thesis in computational sociology) and the renewed controversy surrounding the energy transition based on accusations of greenwashing (thesis on greenwashing)
• The study and comparison of debates surrounding energy transition measures. The aim is to study eight debates (debate study) by applying the same framework to the analysis of these debates (framework for comparing debates on energy transition) and to conduct comparative studies of these debates.

Comparison grid for debates on energy transition measures. We have developed a grid that allows us to objectively study conflicts surrounding energy transition technologies and compare these conflicts with each other.

Social networks. We are training artificial intelligence to analyse debates on energy transition measures. In traditional AI media analysis, studies look at how debates are structured and the points that emerge. In our case, we ask questions directly to databases to find out what is being said, and with what intensity, on the points that interest us.

Studies of energy transition measures. Each of the studies provided above may give rise to specific communications.

Meaning and uses of the concept of social acceptability. We are deepening our understanding of the concept of social acceptability in order to understand how it influences the deployment or non-deployment of transition technologies, and how a good understanding of this concept can lead to the definition of strategies for implementing debates on energy transition.

The effect of state regulation on NGO attacks against energy companies. We analyse the ways in which NGOs, companies and the state interact through the effects of NGO campaigns on companies and state regulation, and vice versa.

Computational sociology thesis. The objective is to use specially trained artificial intelligence to classify posts from six different social networks (X, Facebook, Reddit, LinkedIn, TikTok) in order to implement the grid presented. This makes it possible to specify the nature and intensity of debates in their various dimensions. The work is presented at a conference.

Technology studies. Four studies have been carried out and three are planned:
1. Agri-voltaism
2. Artificial intelligence for energy transition
3. Native hydrogen
The final study may or may not be carried out, on a subject yet to be defined, subject to approval by the co-supervisor.

We have also begun to conduct technology comparisons. Three articles are planned: one on ways in which a debate on transition mechanisms can be conducted depending on the maturity of the debates, one on the technology comparison grid, and one on the maturity and intensity of the debates. Other article projects are sure to emerge.

With regard to the study of greenwashing, we are focusing our work (based on the available scientific literature) on the links between energy NGOs. We have carried out initial work highlighting the link between state regulation and NGO attacks (NGOs using the legal framework put in place by states to put pressure on companies) (article submitted), and plan to deepen this study by developing a typology of NGO attacks and company responses.

1. Brice, Auvet, Arnauld de Sartre, Xavier. 2024, « Transitioning from oil to hydrogen: unravelling political and industrial promises of abundance to sporadic projects », 35e congrès de l’Union géographique internationale, Dublin, aout 2024.
2. Chailleux, Sébastien; Arnauld de Sartre, Xavier. 2024, « The nuclear footprint of the French industrial and energy sectors: disentangling the failed promotion of carbon capture and storage in the light of nuclear hegemony », Congrès de l’European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) and the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S), Amsterdam, Juillet 2024.
3. Arnauld de Sartre, Xavier; Missaghieh Poncet, Justin; Auvet, Brice. 2025, « Nature and intensity of debates on deep geothermal energy in France », 86th EAGE Annual conference « Navigating Change: Geosciences Shaping a Sustainable Transition », Toulouse.
4. Arnauld de Sartre, Xavier. 2025, Participation aux tables rondes « Resaerch skills » et « Publish your dream article » dans le cadre du International early carrer writing and research skills workshop, Université des Nations unies, Bruges, avril 2025.
5. Gay, Paul ; François, Matthieu. 2025, « Finding sustainability needles in AI academic stacks », Conférence ICT4S, Dublin, juin 2025.

The REASONS Chair (Renewable Energy Age : SOcial NoticeS) proposes a comparative analysis of the debate about energy transition technologies ( broadly defined as the technical devices that enable the implementation of an energy transition). The Chair is based on the assumption that the debates are mainly rooted in the lack of common rules to support the transitions; through the analysis of these debates, the Chair intends to identify and understand the implied norms that the debates enable to be implemented.
That will be achieved by combining four tasks, plus a governance task. The first task will focus on the way social organizations have positioned themselves in relation to transition technologies, in particular by studying in-depth two dimensions of these debates ( each dimension being the subject of a PhD thesis): the manner in which they attack companies who make false promises, thus renewing accusations of greenwashing; the manner in which these debates are structured, particularly in social networks. These studies, together with literature reviews on social opposition to transitions, will provide inputs for the eight case studies of transition technologies that constitute the second task. Each study will last for nine months and will be realized by two post-doctoral fellows able to implement interdisciplinary approaches. These analyses, which will complement those already carried out, will allow a comparison of the debates around energy transitions to be drawn up in a third task, a table that will enable the Chair's scientific (analysis of the rules of civic epistemology that are being developed) and operational (recommendations to the Company for the deployment of its technologies) objectives to be achieved. The final task will be dedicated to communication and dissemination, which involves, in addition to academic communications, communications on publication media at the meeting of the press and academic publication and the creation of a strip cartoon on renewable energy deployment.
This chair is based on a long-standing collaboration between the Transitions énergétiques et environnementales laboratory (TREE, CNRS / U. Pau) and TotalÉnergies' R&D unit, a collaboration that will be expanded and amplified by this Chair. TotalÉnergie wants to better understand the rules of the game of renewable energy deployment in order to participate in the public debate and to adapt its proposals to the expectations of the public. For their part, the University of Pau has specialized in energy and environmental transitions, and the UMR TREE is the social science laboratory in charge of analyzing these transitions.
The partnership has already made it possible to carry out studies of transition technologies, which will serve as a basis for the studies envisaged in the Chair in three ways: - in terms of governance, by involving not only the university team and the company's R&D team, but also a team from one of the company's operational entities in the deployment phase of a technology and a team from the company's strategic services (stakeholder engagement department); in terms of approach, to repeat (and adapt) a methodology for analyzing technologies that has already been tried and tested and consists of a combination of methods from different disciplinary fields; and, finally, in terms of accumulated knowledge, to contribute case studies that will serve to compose the common base. The partnership's objective is, on the one hand, to produce knowledge about the debates surrounding the transitions that are taking place, and in particular the rules of civic epistemology that are being discussed; on the other hand, to provide guidance to the company in the deployment of its technologies, so that it can usefully participate in these debates.