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Contested Energy Futures
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Book Synopsis Contested Energy Futures by : Stuart Rosewarne
Download or read book Contested Energy Futures written by Stuart Rosewarne and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-06-11 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book unpacks the politics of climate change in Australia in the context of successive conservative Coalition governments resisting any moves to mitigate emissions and as local communities and transnational corporations struggle with each other to control the transition to a sustainable energy future. As Australia has abundant clean energy resources in terms of solar and wind, the book offers a test case for study of the energy policy transition in the 21st century. It does so by using tools from political economy and sociology, teasing out public attitudes to renewable energy technologies and innovative infrastructure investments, unpacking the complex parameters of this historical debate, tracing the rise of household 'prosumers' and arguing the case for grassroots ownership of renewable infrastructure or 'energy sovereignty' - already pioneered by some isolated communities in Australia. The cultural and emancipatory benefits of cooperative ventures are well known. However, capitalism is not readily defeated by democracy. The promotion of individual households as 'virtual power stations', of 'smart technologies' and even of cryptocurrency into the energy transition innovative mix opens up ever new horizons for corporate control.
Book Synopsis Contested Energy Futures by : Stuart Rosewarne
Download or read book Contested Energy Futures written by Stuart Rosewarne and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book unpacks the politics of climate change in Australia in the context of successive conservative Coalition governments resisting any moves to mitigate emissions and as local communities and transnational corporations struggle with each other to control the transition to a sustainable energy future. As Australia has abundant clean energy resources in terms of solar and wind, the book offers a test case for study of the energy policy transition in the 21st century. It does so by using tools from political economy and sociology, teasing out public attitudes to renewable energy technologies and innovative infrastructure investments, unpacking the complex parameters of this historical debate, tracing the rise of household 'prosumers' and arguing the case for grassroots ownership of renewable infrastructure or 'energy sovereignty' - already pioneered by some isolated communities in Australia. The cultural and emancipatory benefits of cooperative ventures are well known. However, capitalism is not readily defeated by democracy. The promotion of individual households as 'virtual power stations', of 'smart technologies' and even of cryptocurrency into the energy transition innovative mix opens up ever new horizons for corporate control. Stuart Rosewarne has established a rich research record in the field of environmental and ecological political economy. His research has been published in international journals and the book Climate Action Upsurge: The Ethnography of Climate Movement Politics published in collaboration in 2014 on the development of the climate movement politics was well received. The collaboratively-researched and authored Beyond Coal Rush: A Turning Point for Global Energy and Climate Policy, which is a comparative study of reliance on coal in Australia, Germany and India was published in 2020. Stuart has led the development of the Department of Political Economy at the University of Sydney as one of the world's leading research centres for studies on the political economy of climate change. He designed and lectures in the long-running innovative program on multi-disciplinary based Political Economy of the Environment'.
Download or read book Energy Futures written by Simone Abram and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2022-12-31 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everyday life as we knew it is increasingly challenged in a world of climate, social, health and political crisis. Emerging technologies, data analytics and automation open up new possibilities which have implications for energy generation, storage and energy demand. To support these changes we urgently need to rethink how energy will be sourced, shared and used. Yet existing approaches to this problem, driven by engineering, data analytics and capital, are dangerously conservative and entrenched. Energy Futures critically evaluates this context, and the energy infrastructures, stakeholders, and politics that participate in it, to propose plausible, responsible and ethical modes of encountering possible energy futures. Imagining anthropocene challenges, emerging technologies and everyday life otherwise through empirically grounded studies, opens up possible energy futures. Energy Futures proposes and demonstrates a new critical and interventional futures-oriented energy anthropology. Combining the theories and methods of futures anthropology with the critical expertise and perspectives of energy anthropology creates a powerful mode of engagement, which this book argues is needed to disrupt the dominant narratives about our energy futures. Its contributors collectively reveal and evidence through innovative ethnographic practice how new knowledge about imagined and possible energy futures can be mobilised in engagements with emerging technologies, anthropocene challenges and everyday realities. In doing so it brings together authors, analytical expertise and ethnographic evidence from the global south, north and places in between, generated through innovative methodologies including remote video and comic strip methods and documentary video practice as well as long term fieldwork.
Book Synopsis Energy, Resource Extraction and Society by : Anna Szolucha
Download or read book Energy, Resource Extraction and Society written by Anna Szolucha and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-09-03 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Energy is central to the fabric of society. This book revisits the classic notions of energy impacts by examining the social effects of resource extraction and energy projects which are often overlooked. Energy impacts are often reduced to the narrow configurations of greenhouse gas emissions, chemical spills or land use changes. However, this neglects the fact that the way we produce, distribute and consume energy shapes society, political institutions and culture. The authors trace the impacts of contemporary energy and resource extraction developments and explain their significance for the shaping of powerful social imaginaries and a reconfiguration of political and democratic systems. They analyse not only the complex histories and landscapes of industrial mining and energy development, including oil, coal, wind power, gas (fracking) and electrification, but also their significance for contested energy and social futures. Based on ethnographic and interdisciplinary research from around the world, including case studies from Australia, Germany, Kenya, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Poland, Turkey, UK and USA, they document the effects on local communities and how these are often transformed into citizen engagement, protest and resistance. This sheds new light on the relationship between energy and power, reflecting a wide array of pertinent impacts beyond the usual considerations of economic efficiency and energy security. The volume is aimed at advanced students and researchers in anthropology, sociology, human geography, science and technology studies, environmental studies and sustainable development as well as professionals working in the field of impact assessments.
Book Synopsis Visions of Energy Futures by : Benjamin K. Sovacool
Download or read book Visions of Energy Futures written by Benjamin K. Sovacool and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-03-04 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the visions, fantasies, frames, discourses, imaginaries, and expectations associated with six state-of-the-art energy systems—nuclear power, hydrogen fuel cells, shale gas, clean coal, smart meters, and electric vehicles—playing a key role in current deliberations about low-carbon energy supply and use. Visions of Energy Futures: Imagining and Innovating Low-Carbon Transitions unveils what the future of energy systems could look like, and how their meanings are produced, often alongside moments of contestation. Theoretically, it analyzes these technological case studies with emerging concepts from various disciplines: utopianism (history of technology), symbolic convergence (communication studies), technological frames (social construction of technology), discursive coalitions (discourse analysis and linguistics), sociotechnical imaginaries (science and technology studies), and the sociology of expectations (innovation studies, future studies). It draws from these cases to create a synthetic set of dichotomies and frameworks for energy futures based on original data collected across two global epistemic communities— nuclear physicists and hydrogen engineers—and experts in Eastern Europe and the Nordic region, stakeholders in South Africa, and newspapers in the United Kingdom. This book is motivated by the premise that tackling climate change via low-carbon energy systems and practices is one of the most significant challenges of the twenty-first century, and that success will require not only new energy technologies, but also new ways of understanding language, visions, and discursive politics. The discursive creation of the energy systems of tomorrow are propagated in polity, hoping to be realized as the material fact of the future, but processed in conflicting ways with underlying tensions as to how contemporary societies ought to be ordered. This book will be essential reading for students and scholars of energy policy, energy and environment, and technology assessment.
Book Synopsis Global Energy Politics by : Thijs Van de Graaf
Download or read book Global Energy Politics written by Thijs Van de Graaf and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-05-07 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever since the Industrial Revolution energy has been a key driver of world politics. From the oil crises of the 1970s to today’s rapid expansion of renewable energy sources, every shift in global energy patterns has important repercussions for international relations. In this new book, Thijs Van de Graaf and Benjamin Sovacool uncover the intricate ways in which our energy systems have shaped global outcomes in four key areas of world politics: security, the economy, the environment and global justice. Moving beyond the narrow geopolitical focus that has dominated much of the discussion on global energy politics, they also deftly trace the connections between energy, environmental politics, and community activism. The authors argue that we are on the cusp of a global energy shift that promises to be no less transformative for the pursuit of wealth and power in world politics than the historical shifts from wood to coal and from coal to oil. This ongoing energy transformation will not only upend the global balance of power; it could also fundamentally transfer political authority away from the nation state, empowering citizens, regions and local communities. Global Energy Politics will be an essential resource for students of the social sciences grappling with the major energy issues of our times.
Book Synopsis Contested Energies by : Bridget Austin Sparks
Download or read book Contested Energies written by Bridget Austin Sparks and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To gain insight into how the futures of energy are being imagined, contested, and embedded in material and social relations, this project investigates the public disputes and policy discourses surrounding two energy-related proposals: the Millennium Bulk Terminal (a coal export facility in the Northwest), and the Grain Belt Express (wind farm power transmission lines in the Midwest). Energy has become increasingly moralized, contested, and politicized as issues of climate change, competition, and scarcity have made it visible in new ways, pushing issues of energy-its sources, methods of extraction, access to it, and impacts-into the forefront of the national psyche. The development of alternative sources of energy coupled with the dramatic decline in their costs is increasingly challenging the mineral energy regime's dominance. Our society is currently undergoing a transition that is much more than a simple technological shift, but one that represents a broader change to the social order. Energy transport infrastructures play a key role in the design and re-design of energy systems by making it possible to scale up and "lock-in" energy regimes. Therefore, by uncovering the process of how "energy imaginaries"-contemporary social constructions regarding how future energy will be generated, distributed, and consumed- are produced, negotiated, and acted on, this project will provide policymakers and interests groups a more comprehensive understanding of the social changes necessary to decarbonize society and mitigate the effects of climate change. The tools to design specific policies and framings to increase support and overcome barriers to intentionally steer investments towards more sustainable and equitable energy pathways and their conception of the ideal energy future. This dissertation relies on a multi-method approach combining 24 semi-structured in-depth interviews with key stakeholders, content analysis of over 630 news articles from local and national newspapers, and key policy and archival materials from regulatory agencies, industry partners, and social movement organizations. Through this comparative case study of controversial energy infrastructure projects, this study seeks to construct the emerging discourses around and evaluations of the different energy regimes vying for domination in our nation's construction of an ideal energy future, to uncover the larger shifts in meanings that are occurring around energy, and to understand how these values and visions of the future can become materially embedded through the decisions made around which infrastructures are built. The results of this comparative case study point to three competing imaginaries currently vying for domination. The first is based on the "Make Fossil Fuels Great Again" imaginary which argues that our future lays in the continued domination and investment in fossil fuels. That with the influx of fracked gas, the US has the opportunity to be a net exporter of energy for the first time since the 1950s. It also seeks to maintain the status quo and downplays the threat of climate change. The second is based on a centralized renewable energy system similar to the "Close the Gap" imaginary. In this view, we would rapidly transition to cleaner energy sources through the utilization of utility-scale wind and solar production, and a nationwide network of transmission lines to connect load centers with geographic concentrations of renewables. Due to the scale of the projects, large scale organizations such as investor-owned utilities would be the key decision-makers. This view also calls for more control by regional or federal regulatory authorities to decrease the ability of anyone state to derail a project deemed in the public interest. The third is based on a distributed/decentralized renewable energy system, similar to the "In Your Backyard" imaginary. In this view, we would still transition rapidly to an all or nearly carbon-free energy system, but control over the system would reside with local communities, households, and organizations through the expansion of rooftop solar, offshore wind, energy storage, modular nuclear reactors, etc. A greater degree of regulatory authority would be vested in states and local governments rather than in the federal government. It is most likely that a hybrid system will emerge where distributed renewable production is supported by a national network of transmission line to smooth the variability and intermittency of a nearly 100% renewable energy future. Additionally, these energy imaginaries also provide clues into how the larger economy, political and civil society should be/will be organized in the future, and are therefore worthy of more sociological investigation.
Book Synopsis Contested Powers by : John-Andrew McNeish
Download or read book Contested Powers written by John-Andrew McNeish and published by Zed Books Ltd.. This book was released on 2015-06-11 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the global North the commoditization of creativity and knowledge under the banner of a creative economy is being posed as the post-industrial answer to dependency on labour and natural resources. Not only does it promise a more stable and sustainable future, but an economy focused on intellectual property is more environmentally friendly, so it is suggested. Contested Powers argues that the fixes being offered by this model are bluffs; development as witnessed in Latin American energy politics and governance remains hindered by a global division of labour and nature that puts the capacity for technological advancement in private hands. The authors call for a multi-layered understanding of sovereignty, arguing that it holds the key to undermining rigid accounts of the relationship between carbon and democracy, energy and development, and energy and political expression. Furthermore, a critical focus on energy politics is crucial to wider debates on development and sustainability. Contested Powers is essential reading for those wondering how energy resources are converted into political power and why we still value the energy we take from our surroundings more than the means of its extraction.
Book Synopsis Global Trends 2040 by : National Intelligence Council
Download or read book Global Trends 2040 written by National Intelligence Council and published by Cosimo Reports. This book was released on 2021-03 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.
Book Synopsis Political Economies of Energy Transition by : Kathryn Hochstetler
Download or read book Political Economies of Energy Transition written by Kathryn Hochstetler and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-11-26 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shows that economic concerns about jobs, costs, and consumption, rather than climate change, are likely to drive energy transition in developing countries.
Book Synopsis Cities and Low Carbon Transitions by : Harriet Bulkeley
Download or read book Cities and Low Carbon Transitions written by Harriet Bulkeley and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-12-14 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Current societies face unprecedented risks and challenges connected to climate change. Addressing them will require fundamental transformations in the infrastructures that sustain everyday life, such as energy, water, waste and mobility. A transition to a ‘low carbon’ future implies a large scale reorganisation in the way societies produce and use energy. Cities are critical in this transition because they concentrate social and economic activities that produce climate change related emissions. At the same time, cities are increasingly recognised as sources of opportunities for climate change mitigation. Whether, how and why low carbon transitions in urban systems take place in response to climate change will therefore be decisive for the success of global mitigation efforts. As a result, climate change increasingly features as a critical issue in the management of urban infrastructure and in urbanisation policies. Cities and Low Carbon Transitions presents a ground-breaking analysis of the role of cities in low carbon socio-technical transitions. Insights from the fields of urban studies and technological transitions are combined to examine how, why and with what implications cities bring about low carbon transitions. The book outlines the key concepts underpinning theories of socio-technical transition and assesses its potential strengths and limits for understanding the social and technological responses to climate change that are emerging in cities. It draws on a diverse range of examples including world cities, ordinary cities and transition towns, from North America, Europe, South Africa and China, to provide evidence that expectations, aspirations and plans to undertake purposive socio-technical transitions are emerging in different urban contexts. This collection adds to existing literature on cities and energy transitions and introduces critical questions about power and social interests, lock-in and development trajectories, social equity and economic development, and socio-technical change in cities. The book addresses academics, policy makers, practitioners and researchers interested in the development of systemic responses in cities to curb climate change.
Book Synopsis Energy at the End of the World by : Laura Watts
Download or read book Energy at the End of the World written by Laura Watts and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2024-07-02 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Making local energy futures, from marine energy to hydrogen fuel, at the edge of the world. The islands of Orkney, off the northern coast of Scotland, are closer to the Arctic Circle than to London. Surrounded by fierce seas and shrouded by clouds and mist, the islands seem to mark the edge of the known world. And yet they are a center for energy technology innovation, from marine energy to hydrogen fuel networks, attracting the interest of venture capitalists and local communities. In this book, Laura Watts tells a story of making energy futures at the edge of the world. Orkney, Watts tells us, has been making technology for six thousand years, from arrowheads and stone circles to wave and tide energy prototypes. Artifacts and traces of all the ages—Stone, Bronze, Iron, Viking, Silicon—are visible everywhere. The islanders turned to energy innovation when forced to contend with an energy infrastructure they had outgrown. Today, Orkney is home to the European Marine Energy Centre, established in 2003. There are about forty open-sea marine energy test facilities in the world, many of which draw on Orkney expertise. The islands generate more renewable energy than they use, are growing hydrogen fuel and electric car networks, and have hundreds of locally owned micro wind turbines and a decade-old smart grid. Mixing storytelling and ethnography, empiricism and lyricism, Watts tells an Orkney energy saga—an account of how the islands are creating their own low-carbon future in the face of the seemingly impossible. The Orkney Islands, Watts shows, are playing a long game, making energy futures for another six thousand years.
Book Synopsis Enabling Sustainable Energy Transitions by : Siddharth Sareen
Download or read book Enabling Sustainable Energy Transitions written by Siddharth Sareen and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-01-01 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This compact book argues that ideas about accountability and legitimation - drawn from work on environmental governance - can open up new analytical perspectives on what is holding back effective energy system transformation. With bite-size chapters and illustrative cases that draw on the work of five expert witnesses, this is a novel intervention into debates over the politics of energy transition."--Professor Gavin Bridge, Durham University, UK "The book theorizes and advances the research frontier on legitimation practices and accountability with a carefully crafted analysis bridging scholarly fields of environmental governance, political economy, energy research and democratic theory. It is a must-read for all students and scholars interested in shaping more legitimate, democratic and accountable energy transition from the local to global context." -Professor Karin Bäckstrand, Stockholm University, Sweden This open access book reframes sustainable energy transitions as being a matter of resolving accountability crises. It demonstrates how the empirical study of several practices of legitimation can analytically deconstruct energy transitions, and presents a typology of these practices to help determine whether energy transitions contribute to sustainability. The real-world challenge of climate change requires sustainable energy transitions. This presents a crisis of accountability legitimated through situated practices in a wide range of cases including: solar energy transitions in Portugal, urban energy transitions in Germany, forestland conflicts in Indonesia, urban carbon emission targets in Norway, transport electrification in the Nordic region, and biodiversity conservation and energy extraction in the USA. By synthesising these cases, chapters identify various dimensions wherein practices of legitimation construct specific accountability relations. This book deftly illustrates the value of an analytical approach focused on accountable governa nce to enable sustainable energy transitions. It will be of great use to both academics and practitioners working in the field of energy transitions. Siddharth Sareen is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation at the University of Bergen, Norway.
Book Synopsis Alternative Energy Futures by : E235 Alternative Energy Futures Study Team
Download or read book Alternative Energy Futures written by E235 Alternative Energy Futures Study Team and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Alternative Energy Futures written by and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis Global Energy Justice by : Benjamin K. Sovacool
Download or read book Global Energy Justice written by Benjamin K. Sovacool and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-10-02 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores how the idea of justice can give us a way to better assess and resolve energy challenges and problems.
Book Synopsis Sustainable Futures in the Built Environment to 2050 by : Tim Dixon
Download or read book Sustainable Futures in the Built Environment to 2050 written by Tim Dixon and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2018-02-20 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brings together leading thinking on issues of new professional practice and on the future of a sustainable built environment This book focuses on both construction and development issues, and examines how we can transition to a sustainable future by the year 2050—bringing together leading research and practice at building, neighbourhood, and city levels. It deftly analyses how emerging socio-economic, technological, and environmental trends will influence the built environment of the future. The book covers a broad spectrum of interests across the scales of buildings, communities and cities, including how professional practice will need to adapt to these trends. The broader context is provided by an analysis of emergent business models and the changing requirements for expert advice from clients. Sustainable Futures in the Built Environment to 2050: A Foresight Approach to Construction and Development features chapters covering: data and trends, including historical data and UK and international case studies; policies and practice related to the field; current state of scientific understanding; key challenges; key technological advances (including disruptive and systemic technological innovations); change issues and critical uncertainties; and future visions. It provides: A strong conceptual framework based on a ‘Foresight' approach Discussion of the key data and trends that underpin each chapter Coverage of both construction and property development Specially commissioned chapters by academics and practitioners A synthesis of the main findings in the book and key insights for the future to 2050 Sustainable Futures in the Built Environment to 2050: A Foresight Approach to Construction and Development is an important book for postgraduate students and researchers, construction, real estate and property development specialists, engineers, planners, architects, foresight and futures studies specialists, and anyone involved in sustainable buildings.
