Strategic Research as a Mode of Academic Engagement

Assembling Smart Energy Futures for Finland

Abstract

Strategic research indicates a problem- and future-oriented, collaborative process of knowledge creation. Analyzing a Finnish research project, Smart Energy Transition, and a related Delphi survey, we conceptualize strategic research as visioneering and as translations of technologies, time frames and narratives into a relational actor network. We ask 1) How does strategic research condition and contribute to academic practices of visioneering, 2) What are the available means to problematize futures and create intressement in a Delphi survey, and 3) How do academics carrying out strategic research align themselves as part of actor networks? We find that strategic research brings forward and operationalizes new practices in the boundaries between science, business and policy. In our case, the notion of disruption was used to problematize futures. Moreover, plural time frames of short-term changes in actor networks and long-term speculative visions supported intressement. Alignment of academic actors in the project hinged on several issues including research methodology, specific academic backgrounds and expertise, public energy discourses, and national and industry interests.