Directory of Research and Expertise

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Research Summary and Profile

Research interests:

Globalization & Development, Human rights, International Law, International Relations, Law, Local Government, Political Institutions, Politics, Social Sciences

Regions:

Asia, North America, United Kingdom

Summary of research interests and expertise:

Keywords

Social value; indigenous rights; environmental justice; Commonwealth; rule of law; energy security

Bio

Diana Bozhilova is a distinguished scientist and professor of international relations and sustainability whose most recent research spans corporate accountability, social value measurement, energy security and sustainable development governance within (and beyond) Commonwealth contexts. She holds a PhD from King's College London and has been the recipient of multiple post-doctoral and visiting research fellowships from the London School of Economics and Political Science and King’s College London in the course of her academic career. She has taught extensively in UK and India academic contexts and has been the founder of university departments and programmes, serving in senior academic roles.

She was an Ambassador of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (2024-26) and a nominated member of Chatham House (2018-26). Her honorary awards include: Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2026), Emeritus Fellow of the Gita Mittal Foundation (2026), and Associate of King’s College London (2004).

Project summary relevant to Fellowship:

Diana's two fellowship projects — on the progress of UN SDG 2 Zero Hunger and on social value for indigenous communities in India — draw on years of fieldwork, networking, and data research. Diana's most recent publications appear in Energy, Sustainability and Society (2026), Springer Nature Discover Sustainability (2024), Energy Research & Social Science (2023). She was co-editor of a special issue on energy security in the International Journal of Energy Security and Environmental Research and has contributed chapters to Routledge edited volumes. 

Publication Details

Related publications/articles:

Date	Details
13-Mar-2026	Renewable energy discourses of fossil fuel companies: obstruction and delay of climate action Journal articles For decades, multinational fossil fuel companies have strategically promoted discourses to obstruct climate action. Initially, the fossil fuel industry publicized communications that denied the role of fossil fuels in climate destabilization. Recently, however, they have advanced nuanced messages to delay climate action and policy. As the climate crisis worsens and calls to phase out fossil fuels intensify, research into the industry has revealed pervasive “greenwashing” and a discrepancy between external messaging on renewable energy and internal operational positions. Corporate annual reports, which are public-facing communications, offer insights into how companies align their internal strategy with their external messaging. Based on a textual analysis of the annual reports of four of the largest fossil fuel companies (ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, and TotalEnergies), this research compares how companies have adapted their communication strategies about renewable energy between 2016 and 2022.
25-Nov-2024	Advancing social value analysis: challenges and opportunities to understanding social outcomes in the United States and in the United Kingdom Journal articles This paper addresses the comparability and related scalability constraint of Maier et al. (VOLUNTAS 26: 1805–1830, 2015) of social impact measurement by deploying experimental mapping of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target indicators onto social return on investment (SROI) data proxies. Datasets on the unit cost database model hosted by the Greater Manchester Authority are derived for the UK and for the US. Discreet differences in data terminology between financial proxies in the UK and in the USA are translated with a contextual approach for data optimization. The resultant mapped datasets of financial proxies offer early evidence in support of the scalability of SROI. This is valuable for local measurement of progress towards the global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This research finds that there are comparatively wide differences in sufficient data both within and across the UK and the US datasets. Yet, mapped data counts show sufficient cross-geographic financial proxy overlaps, pointing to the viability of data collection with financial proxy sampling and mapping both for the better understanding of place-based social value creation and for comparative localised social value contribution. This paper concludes that initial mapping of data onto the SDG target indicators improves the comparability constraint of SROI.
02-Apr-2023	Fossil fuel companies' climate communication strategies: Industry messaging on renewables and natural gas Journal articles Research shows that multinational oil and gas companies have recently made a strategic shift away from outright climate denial to more nuanced discourses of climate delay. Communication on social media is an under-analyzed part of the fossil fuel industry's strategy to delay the energy transition away from fossil fuels to a renewable future. This study examines how four companies (Shell, ExxonMobil, BP, and TotalEnergies) are communicating about the renewable transition by analyzing tweets published by their global Twitter accounts. Each of these companies tweets about different renewable technologies in the context of showcasing their own renewable projects. TotalEnergies and BP focus mostly on solar, ExxonMobil on biofuels, and Shell on hydrogen; geothermal and hydropower are hardly mentioned by any of the companies. The number of tweets mentioning renewables increased rapidly after 2015. Topic modeling on tweets about renewables shows that renewables are often mentioned together with natural gas, emphasizing how both are essential for emissions reductions. Similarly, computational text analysis on tweets about natural gas reveals how companies highlight the social good of natural gas including promoting its role in emissions reductions, presenting natural gas as a fuel for a cleaner future, and emphasizing that natural gas is critical to meeting growing societal demand for energy. This pattern of communication - linking renewables to natural gas and promoting natural gas as part of their corporate response to climate change - suggests an evolution of fossil fuel companies' strategic efforts to delay the energy transition and obstruct climate action.

Research Projects & Supervisions

Research projects:

Details
Beyond Compliance: Evaluating Social Value, SROI, and Equity in Indigenous Development This project examines the impact of corporate social initiatives on indigenous communities in India to bridge the gap between regulatory compliance and real community benefit. Built on eight years of fieldwork, the research provides a scalable framework to evaluate community consultation, power dynamics, and equitable wealth-sharing. The study evaluates these local outcomes against international human rights criteria and national sustainability standards, making it highly relevant to broader global and Commonwealth indigenous contexts.
Private Data, Public Good: Measuring Food Security Through Consumer Behavior Analytics This study considers the application of private sector consumer purchasing data as a proxy measure for monitoring progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 2 (Zero Hunger). Utilizing NielsenIQ consumer behaviour datasets covering the years 2015-2020, this research develops a methodological framework that connects regional food purchasing patterns with food security indicators. The data analysis reveals surprising findings: no significant correlation exists between regional food price variations and food security outcomes, while consumer spending patterns demonstrate stronger predictive value for food insecurity assessment. The research introduces a comprehensive process model explaining the complex interplay between supply chain dynamics, pricing mechanisms, and household purchasing decisions.

Current PhD topics supervised:

Dates	Details
From: Until:	Collective Identity Formation This project explores collective identity formation as a result of external (EU) Europeanization in the Indo-Pacific region.

Available for doctoral supervision: Yes

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