Social Network Analysis in Scotland group (SNAS) seminar series 2022-2023

We are happy to announce the details of the fifth talk of the Social Network Analysis in Scotland group (SNAS) seminar series 2022-2023.

The fifth talk of the series is on Tuesday 17^th January at 16:00-17:00 UK time. Please see below for more information on the talk.

Although the event is organised for a hybrid delivery (please see below for the Zoom link to join), we would be pleased if you can join us in person. The talk will be held at:

Conference Room 3.15, Floor 3, Chrystal Macmillan Building, University of Edinburgh

15a George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9LD

Tuesday 17^th January at 16:00-17:00 UK time

Mapping communication networks of retrofitting supply chains

Presenter: Yujia Han (University of Edinburgh, UK) and Dr. Faye Wade (University of Edinburgh, UK)

Wide-scale building retrofit is necessary for achieving reductions in energy demand and creating healthier homes. Despite this, policy and industry strategies are still failing to deliver retrofit at the speed and scale necessary to achieve climate targets. Strategies for wide-scale energy retrofitting include developing local traditional supply chains, and introducing whole house techniques. These involve very different supply chain actors and skills, with implications for retrofit success and realised energy demand deductions. However, policy makers do not yet have a firm grasp on the differences in these retrofitting supply chains, or how they can be scaled up to deliver retrofitting at the rate needed. This project fills this gap by using Social Network Analysis (SNA) to map the communication networks of supply chain actors recruited into the two types of project conducted in one UK case study. This talk mainly highlights the research design process of this project, with an intention to provide an overview of social network theory and how SNA as an emerging and powerful tool can be applied in construction management areas. 

Yujia Han is a Research Fellow at the School of Social and Political Science from the University of Edinburgh. She joined Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions (CREDS) to undertake research project with Faye Wade under the theme of ‘Policy and Governance’. Yujia’s primary research area is buyer-supplier relationship in the context of complex infrastructure project supply chains. She is particularly interested in exploring how social network theory contributes to non-linear, non-successive relationships in supply networks. Prior to her PhD studies at Heriot-Watt University, Yujia worked as a senior buyer in the oil and gas industry. She holds a BSc degree in Electrical Engineering from Northeast Electric Power University and an MSc in logistics and supply chain management from Heriot-Watt University.

Faye is an interdisciplinary energy researcher, applying qualitative and quantitative social science techniques for delivery policy-relevant findings about the public and private sector actors responsible for delivering transformation in our energy system. Her interest in understanding the role of supply chain actors for delivering energy retrofitting is being pursued through her Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions (CREDS) project which maps skills and communication networks in supply chains for local traditional and off-site modular retrofitting.

This builds on her previous work, which has included an ethnographic investigation of how, through their work, heating engineers can shape the central heating technologies installed in homes and how they come to be used, and the application of qualitative approaches to better understand the changing nature of construction work with the introduction of new technologies. She has also delivered a social evaluation of the Energy Efficient Scotland programme; the Scottish Government’s cornerstone retrofitting strategy for reducing energy consumption and decarbonising heat in the built environment. This focused on understanding the role of local authorities as key actors in coordinating wide-scale retrofitting, and generated numerous reports used by Scottish Government for developing the programme.