Philip Vergragt

Current Research Interests

His research interests include technological innovation for sustainability; sustainable consumption; housing and community development; backcasting; and technology assessment of emerging technologies. He has widely published in academic journals and book chapters, and co-authored three books. He is a founding member of the Worcester Housing, Energy, and Community (WoHEC) group; a founding member of the Advisory Board of the Greening of Industry network; a founding member of the Executive Committee of the Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative (SCORAI); and a cofounder of the Global Research Forum on Sustainable Consumption and Production. Prof. Vergragt obtained a PhD in Chemistry from Leiden University in 1976.

Selected Publications

Brown, Halina S., Philip J. Vergragt and Maurie Cohen. 2012. Setting the stage: Three theoretical perspectives illustrated by the case of Passive House. In Meeting the Crises of a Constrained World: Socio-Technical Transitions, Social Practices, and the New Economics Edward Elgar, eds. Maurie Cohen, Philip J. Vergragt and Halina S. Brown, to be published, 2012.

Vergragt, Philip J. 2012. Carbon Capture and Storage: Sustainable Solution or Reinforced Carbon Lock-in. In Governing the Energy Transition. Reality, Illusion or Necessity?, eds. Geert Verbong and Derk Loorbach, 101-124. New York, London: Routledge.

Brown, Halina S. and Philip J. Vergragt. 2012. Grassroots Innovations and Socio-Technical System Change: Energy Retrofitting of the Residential Housing Stock. In Creating a Sustainable Economy. An Institutional/Evolutionary Approach to Environmental Policy, ed. G. Marletto. Routledge: Studies in Ecological Economics.

Vergragt, Philip J. and Halina S. Brown. 2012. The Challenge of Energy Retrofitting the Residential Housing Stock: Grassroots Innovations and Socio-technical System Change in Worcester, MA. Technology Analysis and Strategic Management 24, no. 4: 407-420.

Vergragt, Philip J. and Jaco Quist. 2011. Backcasting for Sustainability: Introduction to a Special Issue. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 78, no. 5: 747-755.

Vergragt, Philip J., Nils Markusson and Henrik Karlsson. 2011. Carbon Capture and Storage, Bio-energy with Carbon Capture and Storage, and the Escape from the Fossil-fuel Lock-in. Global Environmental Change 21, no. 2: 282-292.

Quist, Jaco, Wil Thissen and Philip Vergragt. 2011. The Impact and Spin-off of Participatory Backcasting: From Vision to Niche. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 78, no. 5: 883-897.

Cohen, M., H. S. Brown, and P. Vergragt. 2010. Individual Consumption and Systemic Societal Transformation: Introduction to the Special Issue. Sustainability: Science, Practice, and Policy 6, no. 2: 6-12. http://sspp.proquest.com/archives/vol6iss2/introduction.cohen.html.

Vergragt, Philip J. and Halina S. Brown. 2010. GMO as a Sustainability Issue: The Role of the Global Reporting Initiative, in Governing Risk in GM Agriculture, edited by Michael Baram and Mathilde Bourrier, Springer, pp 201-234.

Philip Vergragt. 2009. CCS in the Netherlands: Glass Half Empty or Half Full? In Caching the Carbon: The Politics and Policy of Carbon Capture and Storage, eds. James Meadowcroft and Oluf Langhelle, 186-210. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Vergragt, Philip J. and Halina S. Brown. 2008. Genetic Engineering in Agriculture: New Approaches for Risk Management Through GRI-type Reporting. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 75: 783-798

Brown Halina S. and Philip J. Vergragt. 2008. Bounded Socio-Technical Experiments as Agents of Systemic Change: The Case of a Zero-Energy Residential Building. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 75: 107-130.