Dr Florian Kern

Biography

Florian Kern has more than seven years of experience in research, consulting and teaching in the area of energy, climate and innovation policy as well as socio-technical transitions. He holds a DPhil in Science and Technology Policy Studies from SPRU (2010). Prior to coming to SPRU Florian obtained a Master of Science in Socio-Economic and Technological Planning from Roskilde University (Denmark, 2005). Prior to that Florian studied political science at the Free University of Berlin focusing on international relations, energy policy and environmental policy and management (2000-2003).

Role

Dr Florian Kern is co-director of the Sussex Energy Group and Lecturer at SPRU-Science and Technology Policy Research. He is also the SPRU convenor of the MSc in Climate Change and Policy.

He is a member of the:

- British Institute of Energy Economics (BIEE);

- Sustainability Transitions Research Network (STRN); and the

- American Political Science Association (APSA; section Science, Technology & Environmental Politic).

Florian is an active peer reviewer for a range of journals incl. Research Policy, Technological Forecasting & Social Change, Energy Policy, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, Policy Sciences, Regulation and Governance, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, Foresight, Science and Public Policy and Sustainability.

Florian is interested in the politics and processes of environmental policy, energy and climate policy,  as well as technology and low carbon innovation policy; the governance of socio-technical regime transformations; transition management as a policy model. In the policy fields mentioned above Florian is particularly interested in the role of ideas and discourses in institutional and policy change.

Currently Florian is working on an ESRC-NWO funded project led by Dr Adrian Smith and Dr Rob Raven on 'The Politics of Low Carbon Innovation: Towards a Theory of Niche Protection' which is studying the development of PV, offshore wind and carbon capture and storage in the Netherlands and the UK.

Florian was also involved in a 2 year NERC funded UKERC project led by Dr. Jim Watson on 'Carbon Capture and Storage: realising the potential?'. The final project report and a variety of other outputs from the project can be downloaded here.

Previously, Florian has been working with Prof. Catherine Mitchell (University of Exeter) to investigate to what extent and in what ways the current energy policy paradigm in the UK is changing and which impact this has on moving towards a low carbon economy. For more information on this project see: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/sussexenergygroup/research/politicalparadigms.

In previous work Florian has been looking at UK energy innovation policy for sustainability. As part of this project led by Dr. Adrian Smith a stakeholder workshop has been held in Oxford in February 2008. For more information see: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/sussexenergygroup/1-2-19.html. The project also led to a working paper on 'Dynamics and deliberations: comparing heuristics for low carbon innovation policy' (co-authored with J. Ivan Scrase and Adrian Smith). See: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/spru/documents/sewp184.

Florian also has a keen interest in transition approaches and in particular the Dutch model of 'Transition Management'. The 'Energietransitie' project was led by Dr. Adrian Smith and examined how new ideas about 'socio-technical transitions' (transition management) are being put into practice in Dutch energy policy. For more information see: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/sussexenergygroup/1-2-13.html.

Florian's DPhil thesis is entitled 'The politics of governing system innovations towards sustainable sustainable electricity systems' (Oct 2005-Sept 2009) and was supervised by Dr. Adrian Smith and Prof. Andy Stirling. It analysed two policy initiatives which try to foster transitions towards sustainable energy systems in the UK and the Netherlands. The analysis paid particular attention to the discursive politics of the two initiatives as well as their wider institutional contexts and explains why both initiatives have similar goals but try to tackle the challenge in rather different ways (http://eprints.sussex.ac.uk/2362/).

Florian is convening a Master level core module 'Introduction to Climate Change Economics and Policy' which is part of the MSc course in Climate Change and Policy. He has recently co-developed a new MSc Programme in 'Energy Policy for Sustainability' (with Dr Steve Sorrell) and convenes a SPRU option module on 'Governing energy transitions'.

Florian occasionally contributes lectures or seminars to courses on MSc and BSc level such as the modules 'Innovation Systems',  'Research Skills and Tools for Innovation Studies' or 'Environmental Management and Sustainable Development'. He also supervises MSc dissertations and two PhD students (Jacob Barnes and Emily Cox).

Florian is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA).

Student Consultation

Please arrange meetings via email

Verhees, Bram, Raven, Rob, Veraart, Frank, Smith, Adrian and Kern, Florian (2013) The development of solar PV in the Netherlands: a case of survival in unfriendly contexts. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 19. pp. 275-289. ISSN 1364-0321

Watson, Jim, Kern, Florian and Markusson, Nils (2013) Resolving or managing uncertainties for carbon capture and storage: lessons from historical analogues. Technological Forecasting and Social Change. ISSN 00401625 (In Press)

Markusson, Nils, Kern, Florian, Watson, Jim, Arapostathis, Stathis, Chalmers, Hannah, Ghaleigh, Navraj, Heptonstall, Philip, Pearson, Peter, Rossati, David and Russell, Stewart (2012) A socio-technical framework for assessing the viability of carbon capture and storage technology. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 79 (5). pp. 903-918. ISSN 0040-1625

Markusson, Nils, Kern, Florian, Watson, Jim, Arapostathis, Stathis, Chalmers, Hannah, Ghaleigh, Navraj, Heptonstall, Philip, Pearson, Peter, Rossati, David and Russell, Stewart (2012) A socio-technical framework for assessing the viability of carbon capture and storage technology. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 79 (5). pp. 903-918. ISSN 0040-1625

Watson, Jim, Kern, Florian, Gross, Matt, Gross, Rob, Heptonstall, Phil, Jones, Felicity, Haszeldine, Stuart, Ascui, Francisco, Chalmers, Hannah, Ghaleigh, Navraj, Gibbins, Jon, Markusson, Nils, Marsden, Wendy, Rossati, David, Russell, Stewart, Winskel, Mark, Pearson, Peter and Arapostathis, Stathis (2012) Carbon Capture and Storage: Realising the Potential? Project Report. UK Energy Research Centre, London.

Kern, Florian (2012) An international perspective on the energy transition project. In: Governing the energy transition: reality, illusion or necessity? Routledge Studies in Sustainability Transitions . Routledge, UK, pp. 277-295. ISBN 978-0415888424

Kern, Florian (2012) Using the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions to assess innovation policy. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 79 (2). pp. 298-310. ISSN 0040-1625

Kern, Florian (2012) The discursive politics of governing transitions towards sustainability: an analysis of the Carbon Trust in the UK. International Journal of Sustainable Development, 15 (1/2). pp. 90-106. ISSN 0960-1406

Kern, Florian (2011) Ideas, institutions, and interests: explaining policy divergence in fostering 'system innovations' towards sustainability. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 29 (6). pp. 1117-1134. ISSN 0263-774X

Markusson, Nils, Kern, Florian and Watson, Jim (2011) Assessing CCS viability - A socio-technical framework. In: Energy Procedia.

Kern, Florian (2010) Policy paradigms as part of the landscape: how do policy paradigms influence attempts to govern transitions. In: Fourteenth Annual Conference of the International Research Society for Public Management, April 2010, Berne, Switzerland.

Scrase, J Ivan, Smith, Adrian and Kern, Florian (2010) Dynamics and deliberations: comparing heuristics for low carbon innovation policy. Working Paper. Science and Technology Policy Research, Brighton.

Kern, Florian (2010) Technologiepolitik und klimafreundliche technologien: die legitimierung von neuen politikinitiativen durch diskurs und deren implementierung. In: Wissenschaft und politik: neue forschungsperspektiven. Peter Lang, pp. 51-66. ISBN 9783631603680

Kern, Florian (2010) The politics of governing 'system innovations' towards sustainable electricity systems. Doctoral thesis, University of Sussex.

Kern, Florian (2009) The Carbon Trust: A model for fostering low carbon innovation in the transition countries? Economic and Environmental Studies, 9 (1). pp. 45-57. ISSN 1642-2597

Lehtonen, Markku and Kern, Florian (2009) Deliberative socio-technical transitions. In: Energy for the Future. A New Agenda. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 85-100. ISBN 9780230221512

Kern, Florian and Howlett, Michael (2009) Implementing transition management as policy reforms: a case study of the Dutch energy sector. Policy Sciences, 42 (4). pp. 391-408. ISSN 0032-2687

Smith, Adrian and Kern, Florian (2009) The transitions storyline in Dutch environmental policy. Environmental Politics, 18 (1). pp. 78-98. ISSN 0964-4016

Kern, Florian and Smith, Adrian (2008) Restructuring energy systems for sustainability? Energy transition policy in the Netherlands. Energy Policy, 36 (11). pp. 4093-4103. ISSN 0301-4215

Kern, Florian (2007) Die umsetzung von ABS prinzipien durch pharmazeutische unternehmen. In: Treffpunkt Biologische Vielfalt VII. Interdisziplinärer Forschungsaustausch im Rahmen des Übereinkommens über die biologische Vielfalt, Isle of Vilm.

Kern, Florian (2007) The pharmaceutical industry and access and benefit-sharing. In: European Regional Meeting on an Internationally Recognized Certificate of Origin / Source / Legal Provenance, 24 - 29 October 2006., Isle of Vilm, Germany..

Smith, Adrian, Kern, Florian, Raven, Rob and Verhees, Bram Spaces for sustainable innovation: solar photovoltaic electricity in the UK. Technological Forecasting and Social Change. ISSN 0040-1625 (In Press)