Analyzing Research on the Environmental & Energy Impacts of the Digital Economy

Partner: Cait Cady,Berkeley Law Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, Academic

Overview

Project Description

This project will center around analyzing a database of sources for an emerging multidisciplinary field of practice in hopes of gaining helpful insight into the field’s major trends, focus areas, and trajectory. The bibliographic database consists of 200-300 sources (journals, books, blogs, etc.) related to the environmental impacts of the digital economy. While there is a considerable amount of scholarship focused on the digital economy generally, there continues to be a significant gap in our knowledge of the environmental and energy dimension. Our team, in partnership with the Yale School of the Environment and the Environmental Law Institute, is seeking a better understanding of the current landscape to inform our support of future research endeavors.

Expected Deliverable

The team will apply data visualization tools to this bibliography to explore knowledge gaps, disciplinary silos, and emerging collaboration networks. The results will be used to better inform government or philanthropic investments for research coordination and applied research. Our work includes fostering and supporting a growing research coordination network of scholars and practitioners in this area; the analysis produced by the students will identify gaps, strengths, and trends in the current field coverage and help us target future outreach and direction. The students will have significant freedom in what tools they use to explore this topic and their findings will be represented through data visualizations and presentations to the entire team.

What would a successful semester look like to you?

The parameters of this project are purposefully broad because there are many different approaches students can take to better understand the dataset. Students will have the opportunity to think critically about what tools to use to produce meaningful outcomes, suggest alternative approaches for enhancing collaboration between members of the growing field, and present their findings effectively. They will meet regularly with members of the team where they will have the opportunity to discuss ideas openly about key questions, provide interim progress presentations, and learn more about ongoing research in the multidisciplinary field. In the end, we hope that the student researchers will have a thorough understanding of an emerging and important academic discipline.

Additional Skills from ideal candidates

The project does not require specific skills; rather, the students need to be ready and equipped to design the best methodology for approaching the analysis.

Data

Models

Conclusion