Navigating value dynamics through daily work
Lithium-ion battery developers in the low-carbon energy transition
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19487237 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Yunxuan Miao (0000-0002-7769-8369, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 136 |
| Pages | 104694 |
| Publication date | 2026-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Energy Research & Social Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2214-6296 • E-ISSN: 2214-6326 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.erss.2026.104694 |
| OpenAlex | W7154753176 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 51 |
Energy transition goes beyond technological substitution to involve changes in human values. To steer value shifts toward desired directions, it is important to understand what individual actor can do. While scholarship has explained general mechanisms of value change, far less is known about how individuals participate in micro value dynamics and shape these transformations. This study addresses this gap by examining how individual lithium battery researchers navigate value tensions in practice, centering on their value beliefs and value practices. Based on interviews with fifteen experienced researchers, the findings reveal that value dynamics in energy transition unfold through recursive dynamics between structured value landscapes and distributed navigation practices. Researchers inhabit possibility spaces shaped by material constraints, institutional requirements, and societal expectations, yet reshape these landscapes through translation, negotiation, positioning, and projection practices. The study argues that desired value change is not merely a shift toward isolated, fixed values but requires cultivating mutualistic relations between individual actors and evolving value landscapes. For the governance of the low-carbon energy transition, this perspective suggests effective interventions should focus more on enhancing the generative capacity of value landscapes, in addition to prescribing specific outcomes
Battery (electricity) · Dynamics (music) · Energy (signal processing) · System dynamics · Value (mathematics) · Work (physics) · Advanced battery technologies research · Advancements in Battery Materials · Extraction and Separation Processes
Computer systems
Energy decisions reframed as justice and ethical concerns
The multi-level perspective on sustainability transitions
Mechanisms of Techno-Moral Change
Polycentric systems for coping with collective action and global environmental change
Understanding Technology-Induced Value Change
Thematic Analysis
Transition management as a model for managing processes of co-evolution towards sustainable development
Energy justice
Understanding value change
The future of lithium-ion batteries
Value dynamics in energy democracy
The Seamless Web
Ordering theories
Grid-scale batteries and the politics of storage
Value Change in Energy Systems
Reverse salient as a nexus of technologies and values in sociotechnical systems
The multi-dimensionality of value landscapes
Monism, pluralism, and the structure of value relations
A Pragmatic Redefinition of Value(s)
Regime Resistance against Low-Carbon Transitions
Morality and Technology
Causal Mechanisms in the Social Sciences
A World of Standards but not a Standard World
The Rise and Fall of Social Problems
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |