School of Social and Political Science

Dr Silvia Pergetti

Research Associate

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silvia.pergetti@ed.ac.uk
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9588-4720
https://www.linkedin.com/in/silviapergetti/
CMB 4.14
Chrystal Macmillan Building
15a George Square
Edinburgh
EH8 9LD

Research interests

Data & Digital Energy, environment and sustainability Identities & Inequalities International development Not just energy futures Science, technology and innovation Technology and material culture Work & Economy

An energy and development specialist, Silvia brings a wealth of knowledge in the lived experience of energy access projects and technologies in the context of international development interventions. Her research interests span energy transitions, repair cultures, IoT technology and digital monitoring, data and digitisation, the role of science and technology in the international development industry, the social impact economy, metrics and quantification.

Background

Silvia is a social scientist with a mixed-method background in anthropology and economics. She has 15 years of professional experience working on questions of energy access in South and Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Her early research work was awarded the LSE Lucy Mair Prize and focused on improved cookstoves as an ‘appropriate technology’ intervention against deforestation in Kampong Chhnang, Cambodia. Her PhD, awarded by the University of Edinburgh, was funded by the ESRC and centred on energy system repair and maintenance as labour practices that seek to mitigate the precarity and unevenness of energy access for rural communities in the Sundarban region of Bengal, India. 

Silvia joins the Centre of African Studies as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, upon completion of a one-year ESRC fellowship at the LSE.

Successful grant applications

2025: Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship (Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh)

2024: Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Postdoctoral Fellowship (London School of Economics and Political Science)

2017: Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Doctoral Scholarship 1+3 (School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh)

Publications

Academic articles 

PERGETTI, S. 2025. Tongue, tape, and time: Practicing electrical repair and maintenance work in India’s Sundarbans. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 31(1), pp.20-40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.14162 
PERGETTI, S. 2023. Sustainability is not a thing: it’s hard work! Recognising the middlemen of operations and maintenance in India’s Sundarbans. Energy Research & Social Science. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2023.103290

Commissioned reports 

DIZ, A., S. MEYERRICKS & S. PERGETTI 2023. Alternative economies and community energy in Scotland: Powering a new economy from the ground up. Centre for Human Ecology. https://www.che.ac.uk/news/alternative-economies-and-community-energy-report/ 
ABRAM, S. & S. PERGETTI 2023. Net zero society: Societal change evidence review. Annex 2 in Net zero society: Scenarios and pathways. Government Office for Science Foresight Report. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/642d85fcfbe620000c17dd71/Net_Zero_Society_Re port_2023.pdf

Qualifications

2018-24: PhD Social Anthropology, School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh

2017-18: MScR Social Anthropology, School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh

2015-17: MSc Anthropology and Development, London School of Economics and Political Science

Works within