Erik Laes
Biographic Data
| ID | 5773334 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Erik Laes |
| GIVEN NAMES | Erik |
| FAMILY NAME | Laes |
| SIGNATURE | LAES E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Flemish Institute for Technological Research |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6118-4550 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 43 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Empowering citizens in digital health data governance
As digital technologies in healthcare expand, critical discussions on protecting privacy, securing personal health data, and governing its use have gained prominence. Despite regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation and the European Health Data Space, many citizens remain unaware of their data rights or how their data are used. This highlights the need to understand how citizens wish to participate and what meaningful participat…
Governing the water-energy-food nexus
Towards Caring Technologies in Older Adult Care Through the Co-Creation of an Ethical Process Guide
As populations age, the gap between care needs and available support systems is widening, leading to critical vulnerabilities in staffing, infrastructure, and funding. The need for accessible, human-centred, and ethically grounded care technologies is growing. However, the development of digital health tools often lacks inclusivity and practical guidance. Existing ethical frameworks tend to remain abstract, which limits their real-world applicati…
Digital solutions for disease prevention
As our healthcare system is transitioning toward a more personalized and preventive healthcare approach, enabled by the digital transformation, it is crucial to understand the perspectives of citizens, healthcare providers, companies, and policymakers regarding the use of digital technology solutions for disease prevention and health promotion. Background: Our healthcare system is in transition towards a more personalized and preventive healthcar…
Does polycentrism deliver? A case study of energy community governance in Europe
The European Union's Clean Energy Package (CEP) plans to transform ‘passive consumers’ into ‘active citizens’ to support the transition to a carbon-neutral energy system by 2050. By stimulating the growth of renewable energy communities, the CEP works towards the redefinition of renewable energy as an economic commodity to a common good. In this paper, we approach the implementation of the CEP through the notion of polycentricity. Building on pre…
Towards a Pragmatic and Pluralist Framework for Energy Justice
The three-tenet model, which focuses on ‘distributional justice’, ‘procedural justice’, and ‘justice as recognition’, has emerged as the most influential framework in the field of energy justice. Based on critical reviews of the three-tenet model, we identify three challenges that the model currently still faces: (i) a normative challenge on the grounding of the three-tenet model in philosophical theories; (ii) an ‘elite’ challenge on the justifi…
Structuring values and normative frameworks using Schwartz's value theory to map the three tenets of energy justice
Recent energy justice studies have explicitly introduced different normative frameworks. However, an elaboration of how these newly introduced normative frameworks relate to each other is missing in the energy justice literature. This could lead to false expectations that a specific normative framework could solve the normative challenges of energy justice. We indicate that normative frameworks embrace specific values and priority rules, but stil…
Can renewable energy communities enable a just energy transition? Exploring alignment between stakeholder motivations and needs and EU policy in Latvia, Norway, Portugal and Spain
As a response to societal polarisation and mobilisation against the clean energy transition and renewable energy projects, policy makers at EU level have put focus on renewable energy communities as an instrument to drive transition, due their ability to promote citizens' participation and control over decision-making in renewable energy at local level. Literature on public acceptance and legitimacy of renewable energy projects highlights issues …
From smart to caring technologies – The development of a guideline for Caring Technology implementation in elderly care
As a shift from 'smart' to 'caring' technologies is needed, which puts the end-user's care needs at the forefront, we developed the Caring Technology guideline which is an added value for caring technology implementation in healthcare organisations. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the needs and expectations associated with the implementation of caring technologies in elderly care and use this information to inform the development of a…
We Are
The We Are platform gives citizens control of their own health data and actively involves them in decisions about the platform that manages the data, thereby guaranteeing them that they can manage and share their data in a safe way as a leverage for personal wellbeing and the common good. Challenge: Data about citizens, consumers and patients is collected by the government in order to make policies, by companies to develop new products and for ma…
Energy Communities and the Tensions Between Neoliberalism and Communitarianism
The convergent development of (renewable) distributed electricity sources, storage technologies (e.g., batteries), ‘big data’ devices (e.g., sensors, smart meters), and novel ICT infrastructure matching energy supply and demand (smart grids) enables new local and collective forms of energy consumption and production. This socio-technical evolution has been accompanied by the development of citizen energy communities that have been supported by EU…
Community Heroes and Sleeping Members
Energy justice literature generally treats its three tenets, distributional justice, procedural justice and recognition justice, as separate and independent issues. These are seen as separate dimensions by which criteria can be formulated for a just state of affairs. And a just state of affairs regarding energy should fulfill all criteria. However, we show, using empirical research on six European energy communities that the tenets of energy just…
Engineering Students as Co-creators in an Ethics of Technology Course
Research on the effectiveness of case studies in teaching engineering ethics in higher education is underdeveloped. To add to our knowledge, we have systematically compared the outcomes of two case approaches to an undergraduate course on the ethics of technology: a detached approach using real-life cases and a challenge-based learning (CBL) approach with students and stakeholders acting as co-creators (CC). We first developed a practical typolog…
Political Mediation in Nuclear Waste Management
This paper aims to open up high-level waste management practices to a political philosophical questioning, beyond the enclosure implied by the normative ethics approaches that prevail in the literature. Building on previous insights derived from mediation theory (in particular the work of Verbeek and Dorrestijn), Foucault and science and technology studies (in particular Jasanoff’s work on socio-technical imaginaries), mediation theory’s appropri…
What do energy modellers know? An ethnography of epistemic values and knowledge models
This article considers academic energy modelling as a scientific practice. While models and modelling have been of considerable interest in energy social science research, few studies have brought together approaches from philosophy of science and anthropology to examine energy models both conceptually and in the applied sense. We develop a conceptual approach on epistemological ethics that distinguishes between epistemic values – such as accurac…
Transforming innovation for decarbonisation? Insights from combining complex systems and social practice perspectives
Technological innovations seem to be among the great promises for achieving the urgent modernisation of economies towards carbon-neutrality. Ranging from fusion energy, bio-based fuels, carbon capture and storage to PV panels and so-called smart energy systems, plenty of technologies promise to reduce use or greenhouse gas emissions of carbon based energy sources. This techno-centric view disregards to a great extent that technological change aff…
Dissecting demand response
Anatomy of Emissions Trading Systems
An anatomy identifies four main components of actual or proposed Emissions Trading Systems (ETS): (1) Pursued policy goals with the ETS instrument; (2) Public authority allocations of permits to the regulated participants; (3) Carbon emissions price levels; and (4) Participants’ abatement expenses dependent on the ready availability of affordable abatement techniques or of low-carbon innovation opportunities. These components cover a range of opt…
Assessing the success of electricity demand response programs
Sustainability assessment of nuclear power
Public participation processes related to nuclear research installations
This article addresses organised public participation processes related to installations for nuclear research. The aim was to determine predictors that could provide an empirical insight into the motivations underlying people’s intended level of involvement. The results highlight attitude towards participation and moral norm as the strongest predictors for participation intention. Other significant predictors were time constraints, attitude towar…
Probing the usefulness of technology-rich bottom-up models in energy and climate policies
Can renewable energy communities enable a just energy transition? Exploring alignment between stakeholder motivations and needs and EU policy in Latvia, Norway, Portugal and Spain
As a response to societal polarisation and mobilisation against the clean energy transition and renewable energy projects, policy makers at EU level have put focus on renewable energy communities as an instrument to drive transition, due their ability to promote citizens' participation and control over decision-making in renewable energy at local level. Literature on public acceptance and legitimacy of renewable energy projects highlights issues …
Assessing the success of electricity demand response programs
What do energy modellers know? An ethnography of epistemic values and knowledge models
This article considers academic energy modelling as a scientific practice. While models and modelling have been of considerable interest in energy social science research, few studies have brought together approaches from philosophy of science and anthropology to examine energy models both conceptually and in the applied sense. We develop a conceptual approach on epistemological ethics that distinguishes between epistemic values – such as accurac…
Transforming innovation for decarbonisation? Insights from combining complex systems and social practice perspectives
Technological innovations seem to be among the great promises for achieving the urgent modernisation of economies towards carbon-neutrality. Ranging from fusion energy, bio-based fuels, carbon capture and storage to PV panels and so-called smart energy systems, plenty of technologies promise to reduce use or greenhouse gas emissions of carbon based energy sources. This techno-centric view disregards to a great extent that technological change aff…
Sustainability assessment of nuclear power
Dissecting demand response
Probing the usefulness of technology-rich bottom-up models in energy and climate policies
Structuring values and normative frameworks using Schwartz's value theory to map the three tenets of energy justice
Recent energy justice studies have explicitly introduced different normative frameworks. However, an elaboration of how these newly introduced normative frameworks relate to each other is missing in the energy justice literature. This could lead to false expectations that a specific normative framework could solve the normative challenges of energy justice. We indicate that normative frameworks embrace specific values and priority rules, but stil…
Anatomy of Emissions Trading Systems
An anatomy identifies four main components of actual or proposed Emissions Trading Systems (ETS): (1) Pursued policy goals with the ETS instrument; (2) Public authority allocations of permits to the regulated participants; (3) Carbon emissions price levels; and (4) Participants’ abatement expenses dependent on the ready availability of affordable abatement techniques or of low-carbon innovation opportunities. These components cover a range of opt…
Public participation processes related to nuclear research installations
This article addresses organised public participation processes related to installations for nuclear research. The aim was to determine predictors that could provide an empirical insight into the motivations underlying people’s intended level of involvement. The results highlight attitude towards participation and moral norm as the strongest predictors for participation intention. Other significant predictors were time constraints, attitude towar…
Probing the usefulness of technology-rich bottom-up models in energy and climate policies
Sustainability assessment of nuclear power
Assessing the success of electricity demand response programs
Dissecting demand response
Anatomy of Emissions Trading Systems
An anatomy identifies four main components of actual or proposed Emissions Trading Systems (ETS): (1) Pursued policy goals with the ETS instrument; (2) Public authority allocations of permits to the regulated participants; (3) Carbon emissions price levels; and (4) Participants’ abatement expenses dependent on the ready availability of affordable abatement techniques or of low-carbon innovation opportunities. These components cover a range of opt…
What do energy modellers know? An ethnography of epistemic values and knowledge models
This article considers academic energy modelling as a scientific practice. While models and modelling have been of considerable interest in energy social science research, few studies have brought together approaches from philosophy of science and anthropology to examine energy models both conceptually and in the applied sense. We develop a conceptual approach on epistemological ethics that distinguishes between epistemic values – such as accurac…
Transforming innovation for decarbonisation? Insights from combining complex systems and social practice perspectives
Technological innovations seem to be among the great promises for achieving the urgent modernisation of economies towards carbon-neutrality. Ranging from fusion energy, bio-based fuels, carbon capture and storage to PV panels and so-called smart energy systems, plenty of technologies promise to reduce use or greenhouse gas emissions of carbon based energy sources. This techno-centric view disregards to a great extent that technological change aff…
Engineering Students as Co-creators in an Ethics of Technology Course
Research on the effectiveness of case studies in teaching engineering ethics in higher education is underdeveloped. To add to our knowledge, we have systematically compared the outcomes of two case approaches to an undergraduate course on the ethics of technology: a detached approach using real-life cases and a challenge-based learning (CBL) approach with students and stakeholders acting as co-creators (CC). We first developed a practical typolog…
Political Mediation in Nuclear Waste Management
This paper aims to open up high-level waste management practices to a political philosophical questioning, beyond the enclosure implied by the normative ethics approaches that prevail in the literature. Building on previous insights derived from mediation theory (in particular the work of Verbeek and Dorrestijn), Foucault and science and technology studies (in particular Jasanoff’s work on socio-technical imaginaries), mediation theory’s appropri…
Energy Communities and the Tensions Between Neoliberalism and Communitarianism
The convergent development of (renewable) distributed electricity sources, storage technologies (e.g., batteries), ‘big data’ devices (e.g., sensors, smart meters), and novel ICT infrastructure matching energy supply and demand (smart grids) enables new local and collective forms of energy consumption and production. This socio-technical evolution has been accompanied by the development of citizen energy communities that have been supported by EU…
Community Heroes and Sleeping Members
Energy justice literature generally treats its three tenets, distributional justice, procedural justice and recognition justice, as separate and independent issues. These are seen as separate dimensions by which criteria can be formulated for a just state of affairs. And a just state of affairs regarding energy should fulfill all criteria. However, we show, using empirical research on six European energy communities that the tenets of energy just…
Does polycentrism deliver? A case study of energy community governance in Europe
The European Union's Clean Energy Package (CEP) plans to transform ‘passive consumers’ into ‘active citizens’ to support the transition to a carbon-neutral energy system by 2050. By stimulating the growth of renewable energy communities, the CEP works towards the redefinition of renewable energy as an economic commodity to a common good. In this paper, we approach the implementation of the CEP through the notion of polycentricity. Building on pre…
Towards a Pragmatic and Pluralist Framework for Energy Justice
The three-tenet model, which focuses on ‘distributional justice’, ‘procedural justice’, and ‘justice as recognition’, has emerged as the most influential framework in the field of energy justice. Based on critical reviews of the three-tenet model, we identify three challenges that the model currently still faces: (i) a normative challenge on the grounding of the three-tenet model in philosophical theories; (ii) an ‘elite’ challenge on the justifi…
Structuring values and normative frameworks using Schwartz's value theory to map the three tenets of energy justice
Recent energy justice studies have explicitly introduced different normative frameworks. However, an elaboration of how these newly introduced normative frameworks relate to each other is missing in the energy justice literature. This could lead to false expectations that a specific normative framework could solve the normative challenges of energy justice. We indicate that normative frameworks embrace specific values and priority rules, but stil…
Can renewable energy communities enable a just energy transition? Exploring alignment between stakeholder motivations and needs and EU policy in Latvia, Norway, Portugal and Spain
As a response to societal polarisation and mobilisation against the clean energy transition and renewable energy projects, policy makers at EU level have put focus on renewable energy communities as an instrument to drive transition, due their ability to promote citizens' participation and control over decision-making in renewable energy at local level. Literature on public acceptance and legitimacy of renewable energy projects highlights issues …
From smart to caring technologies – The development of a guideline for Caring Technology implementation in elderly care
As a shift from 'smart' to 'caring' technologies is needed, which puts the end-user's care needs at the forefront, we developed the Caring Technology guideline which is an added value for caring technology implementation in healthcare organisations. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the needs and expectations associated with the implementation of caring technologies in elderly care and use this information to inform the development of a…
We Are
The We Are platform gives citizens control of their own health data and actively involves them in decisions about the platform that manages the data, thereby guaranteeing them that they can manage and share their data in a safe way as a leverage for personal wellbeing and the common good. Challenge: Data about citizens, consumers and patients is collected by the government in order to make policies, by companies to develop new products and for ma…
Digital solutions for disease prevention
As our healthcare system is transitioning toward a more personalized and preventive healthcare approach, enabled by the digital transformation, it is crucial to understand the perspectives of citizens, healthcare providers, companies, and policymakers regarding the use of digital technology solutions for disease prevention and health promotion. Background: Our healthcare system is in transition towards a more personalized and preventive healthcar…
Empowering citizens in digital health data governance
As digital technologies in healthcare expand, critical discussions on protecting privacy, securing personal health data, and governing its use have gained prominence. Despite regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation and the European Health Data Space, many citizens remain unaware of their data rights or how their data are used. This highlights the need to understand how citizens wish to participate and what meaningful participat…
Governing the water-energy-food nexus
Towards Caring Technologies in Older Adult Care Through the Co-Creation of an Ethical Process Guide
As populations age, the gap between care needs and available support systems is widening, leading to critical vulnerabilities in staffing, infrastructure, and funding. The need for accessible, human-centred, and ethically grounded care technologies is growing. However, the development of digital health tools often lacks inclusivity and practical guidance. Existing ethical frameworks tend to remain abstract, which limits their real-world applicati…
Political science (14 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Business (9 works) · Engineering (9 works) · Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy (8 works) · Economics (7 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance (7 works) · Environmental economics (6 works)