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ENERGISE FINAL CONFERENCE – October 15th (Barcelona)

Social and cultural change is a key ingredient in successful energy transitions. Societal norms and routines with regard to work, education, family life, consumption and recreation greatly determine our patterns of energy use as well as our ability and willingness to change those patterns. Without a comprehensive understanding of these practice cultures, efforts to reduce energy use and carbon emissions at the individual or household levels are unlikely to deliver the long-term impacts necessary for a sustainable transformation.

At the final conference of the ENERGISE project, researchers will share new insights into social and cultural influences on energy use across different levels of society. Speakers will draw on almost three-years of cutting edge research that uses a ‘Living Labs’ approach to directly observe existing practice cultures related to energy use in a real-world setting, and to test both household and community-level initiatives to reduce energy use. Participants in the conference will discuss the impact of European energy consumption reduction initiatives, and explore the use of Living Lab approaches for researching and transforming patterns of sustainable consumption. Attention will also be given to new theoretical approaches to evaluate energy initiatives, with a particular focus on social practices and cultures. Lessons and insights for policy will be presented in relation to the advancement of the European Energy Union.

The ENERGISE final conference is open to all interested parties, and will actively encourage positive interaction between actors from society, academia, the policy arena and industry. ENERGISE is funded under the EU H2020 programme (Grant No 727647).

The event will be held in conjunction with the European Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production ERSCP 2019 conference, which takes place from 15-18 October 2019.

L’énergie et ses usages domestiques. Anthropologie d’une transition en cours

Nathalie Ortar et Hélène Subrèmon (eds)

La transition énergétique en cours au sein de nombreuses sociétés industrialisées se caractérise par le passage progressif d’un système fondé sur l’utilisation illimitée d’énergies fossiles, à un système fondé sur l’utilisation d’énergies renouvelables et sur des comportements plus sobres. Cette transition affecte tous nos modes de vie. Les changements en cours, tout autant que les enjeux socio-techniques qu’ils impliquent, mettent en évidence le fonctionnement intrinsèque des sociétés. Ils donnent aussi à voir la façon dont ces dernières se pensent et se projettent.

L’énergie et ses usages domestiques s’intéresse dès lors aux transformations à l’œuvre dans l’utilisation quotidienne ou usuelle des ressources énergétiques. Cet ouvrage interroge notamment la tension perceptible entre les prescriptions au changement, et les pratiques routinières. Les analyses déployées ici prennent ainsi appui sur plusieurs exemples européens, et mobilisent diverses approches théoriques ou disciplinaires (anthropologie, sociologie, histoire). Elles permettent d’accéder à une compréhension plus fine des évolutions et des résistances, passées ou présentes, dans les façons ordinaires de consommer des ressources énergétiques.

La complexité de la relation à l’énergie est ainsi abordée en se plaçant du côté des acteurs, professionnels comme civils, avec l’objectif de donner à lire l’impact des choix politiques et techniques sur le quotidien des pratiques. Qu’il s’agisse d’étudier la mise en service des compteurs Linky en France, ou bien la promotion des énergies renouvelables dans différents contextes géographiques et économiques, ou encore la prise en compte de la précarité énergétique, l’ambition de ce collectif est à chaque fois de rendre visible les enjeux tant sociaux que symboliques entourant la production de l’énergie et ses usages les plus ordinaires. Sommaire: 

Introduction. Le quotidien de la transition énergétique

1. Une révolution de l’œil. Lumière électrique et gouvernement du visible, 1870-1914

2. Cuire avec ou sans flamme ? Le gaz en transition énergétique, de la modernité à la défaveur

3. Les temporalités de l’énergie renouvelable à l’heure de l’austérité grecque

4. Les contradictions d’une transition énergétique morcelée

5. Petits producteurs d’énergie solaire en Corse : routines domestiques et rapports sociaux locaux à l’énergie en contexte semi-insulaire

6. La transition énergétique au prisme des logiques d’action : diversité et dynamiques d’appropriation

7. « Le compteur Linky bientôt chez vous ». Les régulations de proximité à l’épreuve de nouveaux mécontentements locaux

8. Pratiques de consommation et culture familiale en contexte de crise de l’énergie : entre adaptation et résistance au changement

9. La sobriété bricolée. Modalités d’adaptation des ménages modestes en transformation

10. De l’inconfort aux contraintes matérielles, du repli domestique aux pratiques adaptatives : vécus en précarité énergétique dans une région de Wallonie

Résumés des textes par ordre alphabétique du premier auteur de l’article (biobibliographie)

Avec les contributions de : Françoise Bartiaux, Sophie Bouly de Lesdain, Cécile Caron, Aude Danieli, Isabelle Garabuau-Moussaoui, Christophe Granger, Daniel M. Knight, Willy Lahaye, Nathalie Ortar, Magali Pierre, Laurence Raineau, Amélie Sibeni, Hélène Subrémon, Jean-Pierre Williot.

https://www.editionspetra.fr/livres/lenergie-et-ses-usages-domestiques-anthropologie-dune-transition-en-cours

 

Breaking the Rules! Energy Transitions as Social Innovations

The Leibniz Research Alliance is hosting an international conference entitled “Breaking the Rules! Energy Transitions as Social Innovations” that will take place on June 14th – 15th, 2018, at WZB Berlin Social Science Center.

The transformation of energy systems has profound implications for the ways in which our societies are organized, and must therefore be understood as process of social change and social innovation. In many ways, energy systems structure our economies and mirror our attitudes and values regarding the definition of public goods, of justice, and of equity. The transition from one system to another calls these habits, values, practices, and norms into question, and replaces them with others, in a process that is necessarily conflictive and that may surpass our traditional (educationally formed) knowledge and understanding of energy. Among others, energy transitions challenge our basic understanding of what energy means for our everyday lives, where and by whom it should be produced, and how it should be distributed and traded. The range of possible transition pathways is spurring the imagination and the creativity of individual entrepreneurs, large companies, collectives, utilities, and many more. At the same time, these highly innovative dynamics are being resisted by incumbents and increasingly also by local protest groups.

The conference invites international scholars to discuss social innovations in the context of energy transitions, and to spark a debate about their meaning for theories of social innovation, for questions of energy governance, for the evolution of social energy innovations and how they challenge existing power structures in the energy sector. The conference is guided by four overarching themes, each of which will be explored in at least two conference sessions.

For a detailed overview of conference themes, sessions and session convenors please click here.

Themes:

  • Theorizing social energy innovations
  • Governing social energy innovations
  • Drivers and obstacles to social energy innovations
  • Transforming existin gpower structures through social energy innovations

Sessions:

  • Politicizing clean energy transitions: transformative politics and the popularization of social innovations
  • Social innovations in energy transition through transdisciplinary research
  • Governing urban innovations in energy and climate governance: closing the gap between leaders and laggards
  • Real life experiments as a governing tool for social innovations in the energy sector
  • Digitized energy transitions and social change
  • Backward oriented social innovations: How populist movements can stop clean energy transitions
  • Enabling citizens to engage in energy-related decision-making processes: The role of education, participation and ownership for a successful energy transition
  • Subsurface energy – challenges, constraints, acceptance

We invite paper presentations that either

  • explore one of the broader conference themes, or
  • relate to one of the specific conference sessions.

Abstracts should not exceed 500 words, and must be submitted in English language to Leslie Quitzow by March 1st, 2018 (leslie.quitzow@wzb.eu & CC session convenor). Please be sure to include your name, institution, and the name of the conference session that you are applying for. Please direct all questions regarding the session design, presentation format, expected content etc. to the session convenor. Questions regarding overall conference organization may be directed to Leslie Quitzow.

Successful applicants will be notified by March 15th, 2018. Presenters will also be invited to submit their full papers after the conference for possible publication in a special issue in a peer-reviewed journal (the journal will be announced in March). Those interested in participating in this process are asked to submit their full papers by July 15th, 2018 for review (one month after the conference). The special issue will be published in mid-2019.

For any further organizational questions, please also contact Leslie Quitzow.