Publications

Complete list of publications sorted by theme, with links to downloadable versions. Click links below to jump to publications list. You can also browse a list of posts about some of my publications. The list below is the most up to date available online.

 

Writing Methods | Energy Futures | Data FuturesTelecoms Futures | Transport Futures | Fiction | Essays | Poetry |

Writing Methods

Clark, Nigel, Sasha Engelmann, Paolo Gruppuso, Tim Ingold, Franz Krause, Gavin Lucas, Germain Meulemans, Cristián Simonetti, Bronislaw Szerszynski, and Laura Watts. 2021. “A Solid Fluids Lexicon.” Theory, Culture & Society, September, 02632764211030976. https://doi.org/10.1177/02632764211030976.
Dányi, Endre, Lucy Suchman, and Laura Watts. 2021. “Relocating Innovation: Postcards from Three Edges.” In Experimenting with Ethnography: A Companion to Analysis, edited by Andrea Ballestero and Brit Ross Winthereik. Durham: Duke University Press. https://www.dukeupress.edu/experimenting-with-ethnography.
Watts, Laura, Cymene Howe, Geoffrey C Bowker, Neil Ford, and Rob Jones. 2021. “Unda: A Graphic Novel of Energy Encounters.” In Energy Worlds in Experiment, edited by James Maguire, Laura Watts, and Brit Ross Winthereik. Mattering Press. https://www.matteringpress.org/books/energy-worlds.
Watts, Laura. 2020. “Poetry and Writing.” In Transmissions: Critical Tactics for Making and Communicating Research, edited by Kat Jungnickel, 19–35. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. http://transmissions.katjungnickel.com/.
Watts, Laura. 2019. “Eday Newton Machine: Instruction Manual.” In Reconstrained Design, edited by James Auger and Julian Hanna, 56–63. Madeira: Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute. https://sand14.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/watts_edaynewtonmachine.pdf.
Watts, Laura. 2017. “Pelamis Wave Energy Machine: A Museum Exhibit.” Cultural Anthropology Our Electric H₂O, Theorizing the Contemporary (December). https://culanth.org/fieldsights/our-electric-h%E2%82%82o.
Watts, Laura, and Alistair Peebles, eds. 2009. Orkney Futures: A Handbook. Kirkwall: Brae Editions. https://sand14.com/orkney-futures-a-handbook/.

Energy Futures

Chemnitz, Niels Ørbæk, Philippe Bonnet, Sebastian Büttrich, Irina Shklovski, and Laura Watts. 2021. “Unionized Data Governance in Virtual Power Plants.” In Proceedings of the Twelfth ACM International Conference on Future Energy Systems, 282–83. E-Energy ’21. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3447555.3466570.
Watts, Laura, Cymene Howe, Geoffrey C Bowker, Neil Ford, and Rob Jones. 2021. “Unda: A Graphic Novel of Energy Encounters.” In Energy Worlds in Experiment, edited by James Maguire, Laura Watts, and Brit Ross Winthereik. Mattering Press. https://www.matteringpress.org/books/energy-worlds.
Maguire, James, Laura Watts, and Brit Ross Winthereik, eds. 2021. Energy Worlds in Experiment. Mattering Press. https://www.matteringpress.org/books/energy-worlds.
Labanca, Nicola, Ângela Guimarães Pereira, Matt Watson, Kristian Krieger, Dario Padovan, Laura Watts, Mithra Moezzi, et al. 2020. “Transforming Innovation for Decarbonisation? Insights from Combining Complex Systems and Social Practice Perspectives.” Energy Research & Social Science 65 (July): 101452. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2020.101452.
Watts, Laura. 2020. “Nemesis.” In Anthropocene Unseen: A Lexicon, edited by Cymene Howe and Anand Pandian, 301–5. Punctum Books. https://punctumbooks.com/titles/anthropocene-unseen-a-lexicon/.
Winthereik, Brit Ross, James Maguire, and Laura Watts. 2019. “The Energy Walk: Infrastructuring the Imagination.” In DigitalSTS: A Field Guide for Science & Technology Studies, edited by Janet Vertesi and David Ribes, 349–64. Princeton University Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvc77mp9.26.
Watts, Laura. 2019. Energy at the End of the World: An Orkney Islands Saga. Infrastructures. Cambridge MA/London: MIT Press. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/energy-end-world.
Watts, Laura. 2018. “Energy Future Islands as Living Labs.” In Energy Sustainability in the Transition to Renewables - Framings from Social Practices and Complex Systems Theories. Ispra, Italy: Joint Research Centre, European Energy Efficiency Platform (E3P), European Commission. https://e3p.jrc.ec.europa.eu/file/1901/download?token=lRjO9JCe.
Kerr, Sandy, Laura Watts, Ruth Brennan, Rhys Howell, Marcello Graziano, Anne Marie O’Hagan, Dan van der Horst, Stephanie Weir, Glen Wright, and Brian Wynne. 2018. “Shaping Blue Growth: Social Sciences at the Nexus Between Marine Renewables and Energy Policy.” In Advancing Energy Policy: Lessons on the Integration of Social Sciences and Humanities, edited by Chris Foulds and Rosie Robison, 31–46. Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99097-2_3.
Watts, Laura, James Auger, and Julian Hanna. 2018. “The Newton Machine: Reconstrained Design for Energy Infrastructure.” In Control, Change and Capacity-Building in Energy Systems: SHAPE ENERGY Research Design Challenge, 135–42. SHAPE ENERGY. https://shapeenergy.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SHAPE-ENERGY_D3.5_Research-design-challenge-collection-1.pdf. Download
Watts, Laura, and Brit Ross Winthereik. 2018. “Ocean Energy at the Edge.” In Ocean Energy: Governance Challenges for Wave and Tidal Stream Technologies, edited by Glen Wright, Sandy Kerr, and Kate Johnson. London: Routledge. https://sand14.com/archive/papers/wattswinthereik_oceanenergyedge.pdf.
Watts, Laura. 2016. “The Electric Nemesis: Making Energy Futures without Hubris.” In Electrifying Anthropology (Conference Paper). Durham University. https://sand14.com/archive/papers/Watts-ElectricNemesis-final.pdf.
Watts, Laura. 2015. “Orkney Standard Time: Guide to the Energy Future Time Zone.” In Society for Social Studies of Science (4S). Denver. https://sand14.com/archive/papers/Watts-OrkneyStandardTime.pdf.
Watts, Laura. 2014. “Liminal Futures: A Poem for Islands at the Edge.” In Subversion, Conversion, Development: Cross-Cultural Knowledge Exchange and the Politics of Design, edited by James Leach and Lee Wilson. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. https://sand14.com/archive/papers/watts_liminalfutures.pdf.
Watts, Laura, and Brit Ross Winthereik. 2014. “Energy as Alien.” In New Energies: Land Art Generator Initiative, Copenhagen, edited by Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry. New York/London: Prestel. https://sand14.com/archive/papers/WattsWinthereik_EnergyAsAlien.pdf.
Kerr, Sandy, Laura Watts, John Colton, Flaxen Conway, Angela Hull, Kate Johnson, Simon Jude, et al. 2014. “Establishing an Agenda for Social Studies Research in Marine Renewable Energy.” Energy Policy 67: 694–702. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.11.063.
Watts, Laura. 2009. “Future Archaeologies.” The Museum Archaeologist, Society of Museum Archaeologists The Past, Present and Future of Collecting (32). https://sand14.com/archive/papers/watts_futurearchaeologies.pdf.

Data Futures

Chemnitz, Niels Ørbæk, Philippe Bonnet, Sebastian Büttrich, Irina Shklovski, and Laura Watts. 2021. “Unionized Data Governance in Virtual Power Plants.” In Proceedings of the Twelfth ACM International Conference on Future Energy Systems, 282–83. E-Energy ’21. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3447555.3466570.
Watts, Laura. 2018. “Liveable Data: A Low Carbon Science Fiction.” In Mobilities and Complexities: Reflections on Post-Carbon Social Science, edited by Mimi Sheller, Sven Kesselring, and Ole B. Jensen. London: Routledge. https://www.sand14.com/archive/papers/watts_liveabledata.pdf.
Watts, Laura. 2018. “Data Howe: Science Fiction Short Story.” In Orkney Cloud Magazine, 28–33. Kirkwall, Orkney: Orkney Cloud Project. http://orkneycloud.org/publish/orkneycloud2018.pdf.
Nafus, Dawn, and Laura Watts. 2013. Data Stories. Kirkwall: Brae Editions. https://sand14.com/data-stories/.

Telecoms Futures

Watts, Laura. 2014. “Future Archaeology: Re-Animating Innovation in the Mobile Telecoms Industry.” In Theories of the Mobile Internet: Materialities and Imaginaries, edited by Andrew Herman, Jan Hadlaw, and Thom Swiss. Routledge. https://sand14.com/archive/papers/watts_futurearchaeology.pdf.
Watts, Laura. 2012. “Two Pebbles and a Poem: The Landscapes of the Mobile Telecoms Industry.” Canadian Journal of Communication 37 (1). https://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/2490.
Ehn, Pelle, Elisabet Nilsson, and Laura Watts. 2012. “Making Futures – Challenging Innovation.” In Proceedings of the 12th Participatory Design Conference. Vol. 1. Roskilde, Denmark: ACM. https://sand14.com/archive/papers/ehnnilssonwatts_makingfutures.pdf. Download
Watts, Laura. 2012. “Sand14: Reconstructing the Future of the Mobile Telecoms Industry.” The Fibreculture Journal 20 (139): 33–57. http://twenty.fibreculturejournal.org/2012/06/19/fcj-139-sand14-reconstructing-the-future-of-the-mobile-telecoms-industry/.
Watts, Laura. 2008. “The Future Is Boring: Stories from the Landscapes of the Mobile Telecoms Industry.” Twenty-First Century Society 3 (2): 187–98. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450140802062193.
Watts, Laura. 2007. “A Future Archaeology of the Mobile Telecoms Industry (Unpublished Thesis).” Lancaster: Lancaster University. https://issuu.com/sand14/docs/watts_thesis_futurearchaeology.
Watts, Laura. 2005. “Designing the Future: Fables from the Mobile Telecoms Industry.” In Thumb Culture: The Meaning of Mobile Phones for Society, edited by Peter Glotz, Stefan Bertschi, and Chris Locke, 225–34. Bielefeld; Piscataway, NJ: Transcript Verlag/Transaction. https://sand14.com/archive/papers/watts_designingthefuture.pdf.

Transport Futures

Watts, Laura, and Glenn Lyons. 2010. “Travel Remedy Kit: Interventions into Train Lines and Passenger Times.” In Mobile Methods, edited by Monica Buscher, John Urry, and Karen Witchger, 104–18. London: Routledge. https://sand14.com/archive/papers/wattslyons_travelremedykit.pdf.
Watts, Laura. 2008. “The Art and Craft of Train Travel.” Journal of Social and Cultural Geography 9 (6): 711–26. https://sand14.com/archive/papers/watts_artandcraft.pdf.
Watts, Laura, and John Urry. 2008. “Moving Methods, Travelling Times.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 26 (5): 860–74. https://sand14.com/archive/papers/wattsurry_movingmethods.pdf.

Fiction

Watts, Laura. 2021. “The Cuddle Stop.” In Shoreline of Infinity 20, 16–24. Edinburgh: Shoreline of Infinity. https://www.shorelineofinfinity.com/product/shoreline-of-infinity-20/.

Essays

Watts, Laura. 2019. “Energy Futures at the Edge of the World.” Revolve Media, Brussels, June 2019. http://www.sand14/archive/papers/watts_revolve.pdf. https://revolve.media/energy-futures-at-the-edge-of-the-world/.
Watts, Laura. 2019. “Light and Life in the Energy Future.” MITP Blog (blog). January 31, 2019. https://mitpress.mit.edu/blog/light-and-life-energy-future.
Watts, Laura. 2019. “Peer-Review d’un Article Anonyme En Humanités Énergétiques. Traduit Par Tristan Loloum et Nathalie Ortar.” Lectures Anthropologiques 5. https://www.lecturesanthropologiques.fr/712.
Watts, Laura. 2018. “Making Energy Futures at the Island Edge.” CCCB Lab (blog). January 30, 2018. http://lab.cccb.org/en/making-energy-futures-at-the-island-edge/.
Watts, Laura. 2018. “Data Howe: Science Fiction Short Story.” In Orkney Cloud Magazine, 28–33. Kirkwall, Orkney: Orkney Cloud Project. http://orkneycloud.org/publish/orkneycloud2018.pdf.
Watts, Laura. 2017. “Peer Review of an Anonymous Energy Humanities Paper.” European Anthropology Network, June. https://ean.hypotheses.org/602.
Watts, Laura. 2016. “Nemesis.” Lexicon for an Anthropocene Yet Unseen, Theorizing the Contemporary, Cultural Anthropology, September. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/nemesis.
Watts, Laura, Max Liboiron, Sengers, Phoebe, and Williams, Kaiton. 2016. “4S Preview: Here, There Be Future Dragons….” Society for Social Studies of Science Backchannels (blog). August 5, 2016. http://www.4sonline.org/blog/post/here_there_be_future_dragons.
Watts, Laura. 2016. “Smart Power Flows at the Island Edge.” European Marine Energy Centre (blog). March 24, 2016. http://www.emec.org.uk/smart-power-flows-at-the-island-edge/.
Mann, Anna, and Laura Watts. 2016. “Letters from Wanna Wonder and the Electric Nemesis.” EASST Review 35 (4). https://easst.net/issue/easst-review-volume-354-december-2016/.
Ehn, Pelle, Lucy Suchman, and Laura Watts. 2014. “Prologue.” In Making Futures: Marginal Notes on Innovation, Design, and Democracy, by Pelle Ehn, Elisabet Nilsson, and Richard Topgaard. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. http://mitp-content-server.mit.edu:18180/books/content/sectbyfn?collid=books_pres_0&fn=Prologue_Intros_11_5_14_0.pdf&id=9874.

Poetry

Watts, Laura. 2023. “Edge.” In Reclaiming Technology: A Poetic-Scientific Vocabulary, edited by Brit Ross Winthereik and James Maguire, 94. Copenhagen: Ctrl+Alt+Delete Books. https://cadb.dk/product/reclaiming-technology/?lang=en.
Watts, Laura. 2020. “Prison Ship & Stone Kissed.” In Shoreline of Infinity 17. Edinburgh: Shoreline of Infinity. https://www.shorelineofinfinity.com/product/shoreline-of-infinity-17/.
Watts, Laura. 2019. “Eday Newton Machine: Instruction Manual.” In Reconstrained Design, edited by James Auger and Julian Hanna, 56–63. Madeira: Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute. https://sand14.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/watts_edaynewtonmachine.pdf.
Watts, Laura. 2017. “Pelamis Wave Energy Machine: A Museum Exhibit.” Cultural Anthropology Our Electric H₂O, Theorizing the Contemporary (December). https://culanth.org/fieldsights/our-electric-h%E2%82%82o.
Watts, Laura. 2017. “The Draukie’s Tale: Origin Myth for Wave Energy.” In Energy Humanities: An Anthology, edited by Imre Szeman and Dominic Boyer. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. https://sand14.com/the-draukies-tale-poem-published-in-anthology/.
Watts, Laura. 2016. “This Is Not a Poem (This Is an STS Problem).” In 4S/EASST (Conference Paper). Barcelona. https://sand14.com/archive/papers/watts_thisisnotapoem.pdf.
Finlay, Alec, and Laura Watts. 2015. Ebban an’ Flowan. Edinburgh: Morning star. https://sand14.com/ebban-an-flowan-a-primer-for-marine-renewable-energy/.
Watts, Laura. 2012. “Two Pebbles and a Poem: The Landscapes of the Mobile Telecoms Industry.” Canadian Journal of Communication 37 (1). https://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/2490.
Watts, Laura. 2011. “Their Use Is Wholly Unknown.” In Shadows of Our Ancestors: Poems from the Heart of Neolithic Orkney, edited by Yvonne Gray. Stromness: Braga Press. https://sand14.com/poem-from-the-heart-of-neolithic-orkney/.
Watts, Laura. 2010. “Mam Tor Transect, The Dragon’s Back.” In White Peak, Dark Peak, edited by Alec Finlay. Edinburgh: Morning Star. https://sand14.com/white-peak-dark-peak/.