Staff profile

My research interests primarily focus on the interface between energy technology developments and their implementation in different societies and the complex and often ambiguous effects they have on everyday life in different places. Much of my work so far has focused on Solar Photovoltaics and the manner in which the technology has been used in different contexts, primarily in Sri Lanka and the UK.

I completed my PhD in Human Geography here at Durham University in 2016 with a thesis entitled Assemblages of solar electricity: enacting power, time and weather at home in the United Kingdom and Sri Lanka. The thesis argued that a tendency to focus on diffusion and social acceptance of solar in both policy and research has left gaps in our understanding of how solar works as a material force in everyday life after installation. It aimed to move social science away from viewing energy as a neutral resource to be consumed, particularly within households, and towards better understanding of how its employment shapes different modes of social ordering.

Since joining the Department of Anthropology I have worked as a Research Associate for the Low Carbon Energy for Development Network (https://www.lcedn.com). The LCEDN brings together international researchers, policy-makers and practitioners to expand research capacity around low-carbon development in the countries of the Global South.

I am currently leading a networking project focusing on sustainable futures for solar PV and battery waste: https://www.dur.ac.uk/dei/projects/sustainablefutures/ 

• Low carbon energy transitions
• Solar waste and value chains

Chapter in book

• Ling-Chin, J., Turner, B., Abram, S., Giampieri, A., But, B., Abad, A. V., & Roskilly, A. P. (2024). Hydrogen-fueled transportation as a measure for climate change mitigation: Social perspectives. . Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-443-18515-1.00005-8
• Adams, C., Bell, S., Taylor, P., Alimisi, V., Hutchinson, G., Kumar, A., & Turner, B. R. (2013). Equity across borders: a whole-system approach to micro-generation. In K. Bickerstaff, G. Walker, & H. Bulkeley (Eds.), Energy justice in a changing climate : social equity and low carbon energy (91-115). Zed Books Ltd

Journal Article

• Copeland, C., Turner, B., Powells, G., & Wilson, K. (2022). In Search of Complementarity: Insights from an Exercise in Quantifying Qualitative Energy Futures. Energies, 15(15), Article 5340. https://doi.org/10.3390/en15155340
• Kumar, A., Ferdous, R., Luque-Ayala, A., McEwan, C., Power, M., Turner, B., & Bulkeley, H. (2019). Solar energy for all? Understanding the successes and shortfalls through a critical comparative assessment of Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Mozambique, Sri Lanka and South Africa. Energy Research and Social Science, 48, 166-176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2018.10.005
• Turner, B. (2018). Diffusion on the ground: Rethinking the logic of scale and access in off-grid solar in Sri Lanka. Energy Research and Social Science, 50, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2018.11.005
• Inderberg, T. H. J., Tews, K., & Turner, B. (2018). Is there a Prosumer Pathway? Exploring household solar energy development in Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom. Energy Research and Social Science, 42, 258-269. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2018.04.006
• Roelich, K., Bale, C. S., Turner, B., & Neall, R. (2018). Institutional pathways to municipal energy companies in the UK: Realising co-benefits to mitigate climate change in cities. Journal of Cleaner Production, 182, 727-736. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.02.002
• Brown, E., Campbell, B., Cloke, J., To, L. S., Turner, B., & Wray, A. (2018). Low carbon energy and international development: from research impact to policymaking. Contemporary Social Science, 13(1), 112-127. https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2017.1417627