Cottrell, William Frederick

Lead Author: Cutler J. Cleveland (other articles)
Article Topics: Energy people and Environmental economics
This article has been reviewed and approved by the following Topic Editor: Tom Lawrence (other articles)
Last Updated: December 21, 2006

William Frederick Cottrell (1903-), an American sociologist, developed a general theory of social and economic change based on changes in energy sources and their conversion technologies. In Energy and Society (1955), Cottrell describes the evolution of human culture in terms of energy. He is the first social scientist to identify the importance of the net energy return, or the energy surplus, delivered by a society’s energy system. Cottrell also emphasized the importance of energy transitions, such as the shift from animate energy sources (human labor and draft animals) to inanimate energy sources and their associated converters (fossil fuels, steam, and the internal combustion engine).

Citation
Cleveland, Cutler (Lead Author); Tom Lawrence (Topic Editor). 2006. "Cottrell, William Frederick." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth December 19, 2006; Last revised December 21, 2006; Retrieved January 6, 2009]. <http://www.eoearth.org/article/Cottrell,_William_Frederick>
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