Liote, Laurent-Olivier; (2024) How is engineering advice deployed in energy policy practice? An ethnographic look at BEIS, the UK government's department of energy. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Given their involvement in the development and construction of built-systems, engineers have a crucial role to play in tackling the grand challenges faced by our societies. For example, developing new modes of transportation and energy production to tackle climate change. However, seeing that engineering has such a key role to play in policy making, the fact that no significant academic corpus explores engineering advice for policy is surprising. This thesis therefore aims to fill this void by looking at engineering advice deployment in UK policy making. As academic literature on this topic is limited, this thesis starts by building a theoretical framework by looking at three adjacent fields of study. The review of science advice, engineering studies and UK intra-ministerial policy advice literature generates three questions to be empirically answered: • How does engineering advice work in a UK government department? • What is the difference between science and engineering advice in a UK ministerial context? • What are the impacts of the UK government structure and civil service culture on engineering advice? To answer these questions, this thesis takes an underused but called-for methodological approach to study policymaking: ethnography. This ethnographic study focuses on a team of trained engineers that advises other policy teams within the UK government’s Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). The research looks at how the engineers interface with policy officers, how the engineering team compares to BEIS’ climate science team and how the civil service culture shapes engineering advice. By combining concepts from the theoretical framework and the data collected, this thesis provides insights into engineering advice deployment in policy along three axes. It starts a conversation about the epistemology of engineering advisers and its impact on policy. It compares engineering and science advice to show what makes engineering advice unique and how it should be conceptualised. And it highlights how political vision influences engineering advice development. This thesis ends by suggesting avenues for future research to further improve the understanding of engineering advice in policy practice.

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