Does energy policy scholarship consider energy resilience? A bibliometric analysis and agenda for reform

Abstract

This study investigates the extent to which the concept of energy resilience is integrated into energy policy scholarship and proposes future research agenda to strengthen engagement with energy resilience in energy policy making. Our study shows that energy resilience is absent in energy policy scholarship, or framed the other way round, energy policy scholarship is absent in the discussion of energy resilience topic. We used bibliometric analysis of literature across Scopus and ProQuest databases and applied keyword co-occurrence mapping and journal-keyword analysis techniques to assess how themes of energy resilience intersect with “community,” “disaster,” and “policy.” Our analysis reveals that energy resilience is predominantly framed within technical, systemic and infrastructural contexts, with limited interdisciplinary attention to its socio-economic, governance, and equity dimensions. Notably, resilience-related terms are underrepresented in leading policy journals, suggesting a disconnect between energy resilience as a concept and energy policy scholarship. We argue that advancing energy resilience as a structured policy agenda requires a holistic framework that integrates technical reliability with community-level resilience, institutional capacity, and justice considerations. This research provides empirical evidence of the thematic silos in the energy policy literature and offers a roadmap for incorporating energy resilience more substantively into energy policy design, implementation, and evaluation.