Social Acceptance and Interdisciplinarity: Understanding the Constructive Power of Terminology

Interdisciplinary working is increasingly common in academic research projects, but presents a number of challenges. This chapter focuses on terminology and language across disciplines, and explores why this matters for understanding social responses to renewable energy techology. It demonstrates that definitions are important not just to ensure that representatives from different disciplines can talk to each other, but that they have ramifications for how social responses themselves are conceptualised. Indeed, the nature of the issue itself depends on how concepts are defined. This chapter explores the impact of terminology; and suggests how to move forward in future interdisciplinary research.