Geography, Communities and Energy Futures: Alternative Research Paths

Learning from a failed project – challenges of implementing ‘green’ technology in a real world setting

“…Research within geography addressing new energy technology and sustainability often focuses on controversies in relation to the location of renewable energy artefacts, such as wind turbines (see for instance Graham & Rudolph, 2014;Warren & Birnie, 2009). Less attention is paid to changes in energy systems that may not be as physically conspicuous, but that still entail new circumstances for everyday living and may be controversial in other respects.…”

Integrating sociotechnical and spatial imaginaries in researching energy futures

“…The academic literature on sociotechnical imaginaries (STIs) provides useful resources for thinking about the relations between energy futures and social change. However, there remains room to refine our thinking by recognising the extent to which sociotechnical change is a geographical project [2][3][4]. Energy system transformation involves more than technological conversion: it drives social and spatial change, impacting socio-spatial practices, relations, identities and outcomes.…”

“…Indeed, we believe that the two review papers failed to include one area where STS and energy social science can meet in complementary ways, which is research on the spatial dimensions of energy transitions. In the last few years, an increasing body of work, lamenting the lack of attention paid to space in energy studies, has aimed to demonstrate the value of spatial thinking to understand energy systems [2][3][4][7][8][9][10][11][12], endeavours which have been echoed in the field of transition studies [13][14][15][16]. This body of research is multi-faceted, attending to the productive 'academic borderland' [3] without providing one unified approach to the field.…”

“…It encourages moving away from top-down ways of thinking about the future of energy systems and acknowledging that their spatiality is always differentiated and dynamic, and consequential for multi-scalar change [3,7,10,building on 20]. It also involves viewing energy transitions as socio-spatial processes that both shape and are shaped by socio-spatial patterns, relations, practices, identities and imaginaries [2][3][4]9,13,16,21,22].…”