Interested in the social aspects of technology adoption, particularly around sanitation provision, energy access and behaviour change.
Currently undertaking an interdisciplinary PhD that is investigating the role that toilet-liked anaerobic digestion can play in creating sustainable rural futures. I am focussing particularly on the cultural barriers that arise from using biogas for cooking derived from human excreta as a feedstock. My work is currently focused in Nepal and India.
Article
Boyd Williams N, Quilliam RS, Campbell B, Raha D, Baruah DC, Clarke ML, Sarma R, Haque C, Borah T & Dickie J (2022) Challenging perceptions of socio-cultural rejection of a taboo technology: Narratives of imagined transitions to domestic toilet-linked biogas in India. Energy Research and Social Science, 92, Art. No.: 102802. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2022.102802
Article
Boyd Williams N, Quilliam R, Campbell B, Ghatani R & Dickie J (2022) Taboos, toilets and biogas: Socio-technical pathways to acceptance of a sustainable household technology. Energy Research and Social Science, 86, Art. No.: 102448. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2021.102448
Newspaper Article
Britain's public toilet shame: time for equal access to decent facilities for all
Boyd Williams N, Roxburgh H & Dickie J (2020) Britain's public toilet shame: time for equal access to decent facilities for all. The Conversation. 05.08.2020.