Dan Thorman is a CAST Research Associate based at Cardiff University. He is working mainly on Theme 3, with core responsibilities for developing and analysing deliberative roundtable discussions with policymakers and stakeholders in government and business. These discussions will be geared towards policy development in the four areas of Food and Diet, Transport and Mobility, Material Consumption, and Heating and Cooling. Dan also works on issues related to climate deliberation and citizen assemblies.
Dan specialises in environmental social psychology, with an open and interdisciplinary critical realist perspective that incorporates economics, political science, sociology and critical theory. Research projects have often mixed methods approaches, and have employed experimental framing studies, thematic analysis, and discourse analysis. His PhD research has explored degrowth as a strategy for low consumption futures, with a view towards socio-ecological harmony. Dan has also worked as a post-doctoral researcher for the University of Bath in collaboration with local authorities in Bath and North East Somerset council, helping to inform their policy development regarding the introduction of a Clean Air Zone. He has also worked in a school as a teaching assistant, and for an NGO / Think tank in Brussels after his Masters’ degree, before returning to academia to continue his work and studies at Cardiff University