Rate My Professor David Evans

Professor David Evans is Professor of Organisation and Sociotechnical Futures in the University of Bristol Business School and a member of the Cabot Institute for the Environment. He holds a PhD, MSc Econ, and BSc Econ. His research sits at the intersection of Science and Technology Studies, Economic Sociology, Organisation Theory, and Cultural Geography, adopting relational-materialist perspectives such as Actor-Network Theory. Evans conducts ethnographic research, often in collaboration with scholars from natural and physical sciences, focusing on material and cultural practices in economic organisation and social change, particularly sustainability governance. His work addresses sustainable consumption and production, including politics of behaviour change, eco-innovation, household sustainability, plastics, reusable packaging, food waste, retailers, food politics, urban food sharing, and conventions coordinating food production and consumption. Current projects explore sustainability transitions in food systems, distribution of responsibilities, normative contestations around good food, politics of evidence, environmental impacts of 6G, sociodigital futures of television, materiality of media infrastructure, and techniques like life cycle assessment for sustainability governance. Evans serves as Co-Investigator and Centre Leadership Team member for the ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures, leading the Consuming Futures Domain, contributing to the Theory Thread and High Performance Networks Thematic Analysis Programme. He is also Co-Investigator and Executive Group member for the UKRI-SPF funded H3 programme on Healthy Soil, Healthy Food, Healthy People, leading the cross-cutting theme on consumption, demand, and access. Notable projects include Many Happy Returns on reusable packaging systems and Healthy Soils initiatives.

Evans has produced 87 research outputs, including key publications such as Understanding plastic packaging: the co-evolution of materials and society (Global Environmental Change, 2020), The ontological politics of freshness: qualities of food and sustainability governance (Environment and Planning A, 2022), and Organising the subjects of responsible consumption: analysing the locus of responsibility for transitions in the UK food sector (2007-2021) (Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 2025). His contributions advance understandings of innovation, technologies, infrastructures, everyday practices, and environmental sustainability in agro-food and telecommunications sectors.