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Energies and technologies futures program

June 20/21st 2019

ISH, Salle Élise Rivet (4th floor)

14 avenue Berthelot, 69007 Lyon, France

 

9.30 Introduction

10.00 – 12.00 panel one

Sarah Pink – Emerging Technologies Lab, Monash University

Energy Futures and Emerging Technologies: A Design Anthropological Approach

Alexander R.E. Taylor – Department of Social Anthropology/University of Cambridge

Future-proof Clouds: Electromagnetic Pulse Protection in the Data Centre Industry

Julia Velkova  – Consumer Society Research Centre/University of Helsinki

Replacing fossil fuels with data: emergent cultures and infrastructural politics around data centres’ thermal waste across Europe

Agnese Cimdina – Faculty of Business, Management and Economics University of Latvia

Is technology the answer to the double bind?

12.00 – 13.00 lunch

 

13.00 – 15.00 panel two

Katherine Ellsworth-Krebs – University of Saint Andrews

Energy demanding expectations: house size, privacy and domestic energy research

Michiel Köhne & Elisabet Rasch – Sociology of Development and Change/Wageningen University        

The future of energy in your rented home – Tenants and the energy transition

Charlotte Johnson – UCL Energy Institute, UCL

Is Demand Side Response a woman’s work? Domestic labour and the UK’s future smart electricity system

15.00 – 18.00 site visit of Lyon Confluences

 

Day two

09.00 – 11.30 panel three

Chiara Bresciani – The Cairns Institute, James Cook University & School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University

Under a rising sun? Solar energy, bright prospects and missed futures

Hsin-yi Lu – Department of Anthropology, National Taiwan University

Wind Futures: Contested Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Renewable Energy in Taiwan

Martín Fonck – Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society/Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

“Explorando el interior de la Cordillera de Los Andes”: an ethnographic approach to the construction of geothermal energy futures in the Chilean Andes Mountains.

Ragnhild Freng Dale –

Between power lines and petroleum: energy futures, art interventions and coloniality in the Norwegian north

11.30 – 11.45 coffee break

 

11.45 – 13.00 Discussion on publication possibilities and panel proposals for EASA 2020

 

13.00 – lunch and departure

 

Attendance is free but please register: https://etechfutures.sciencesconf.org/

   

Cfp: Energies and Technologies Futures

EASA – FAN/EAN joint workshop

20-21st June 2019 in Lyon (France)

Deadline for abstract submission: April 15th 2019

For over a century, predictions about the future have been dominated by technological fantasies, either with utopian or dystopian outcomes. Driven increasingly by responses to the causes and effects of climate change, popular political future imaginaries span elitist extra planetary survivalism and back-to-the-land minimalism. Anthropologists have emphasised the social and material forms of technology, and the need to analyse and account for visions of the future and attend to socio-material relations between technologies, humans and other living beings in a shared environment.

FAN explores the anthropological potential for future-oriented methodologies, while EAN generates knowledge on approaches energetic practices of various kinds. This workshop brings these two concerns together, to generate synergies, theoretical trajectories and newly shared research agendas. Where do energy and technology futures intersect? How are human futures implicated in diverse techno-energetic visions? What alternative other human futures are possible in the current techno-energetic world than those extremes delineated above of extraplanetary survivalism and back-to-the-land minimalism? How can anthropologists account for- and intervene- and take part in forging in futures-generation?

The aim is to demonstrate that two relatively new areas of anthropological research and practice can work together to consolidate an agenda for research and intervention. It seeks to both impact on the theory and methodology of the discipline and to advance an anthropological approach to energy futures in an interdisciplinary research field.

Deadline for abstract submission: April 15th 2019

Abstracts (in English) with a maximum length of 500 words should be downloaded on the workshop website https://etechfutures.sciencesconf.org

Notifications of acceptance will be communicated by May 1st 2019.

Full papers (in English with a maximum length of 8,000 words including notes and references) will be due by May 30th, 2019.

Fees: The workshop is free of charge, and a limited amount of funding is available to support travel expenses. If you need to request support for travel please contact the organisers regarding this when submitting your abstract.

Organizing and scientific committee:

Pr. Simone Abram, Durham University

Dr. Débora Lanzeni, DLRC Aarhus University

Dr. Nathalie Ortar, LAET, ENTPE-University of Lyon

Pr. Sarah Pink, Monash University

Dr. Karen Waltorp, Aarhus University

New Challenges of Sustainable Energy Transformations? Ambiguity, Contingency, and Politics

Abstract
Recently, social science literature is particularly concerned with implementation processes of sustainable energy transformations. The crucial question is how to analyze these complex processes adequately in order to provide answers on urgent questions like successful governance of energy transformation processes [1–4], appropriate policies and political conditions [5,6], or how long the transformation process will take [7], or how much it will cost [8]. These scientific disputes reveal the need to consider carefully socio-institutional processes in which sustainable energy transformations are embedded. In an age of populism, post-truth politics, and contestation the social-institutional environment is in turbulence. At the same time, countries all over the world but especially those from the Global South are facing climate change deteriorating living and production conditions and bringing about economic damage. We call for Panels and Papers analyzing challenges of sustainable energy transformations as well as the impact of these challenges on sustainable energy transformation processes. The overarching aim of the Section is for all Panels to draw together conceptual expertise and rigorous empirical analysis in order to explore if and how changes of the socio-institutional environment affect sustainable energy transformation processes or if and why these processes are resilient.

The following colleagues have expressed their interest in organizing a Panel within this Section:

“Climate and energy policy revisions in Europe”
(Chairs: Merethe Dotterud Leiren, CICERO Center for International Climate Research, Oslo, Norway/ Elin Lerum Boasson, University of Oslo, Norway)
Extensive revisions of EU climate and energy policy is going on. To what extent has the Paris agreement influenced such EU revisions? What are the effects on the development of national renewable energy policies embedded in a European order? How does policy development at the global and European level affect national policies in different or similar ways?

“Energy transition(s) in the countries of central and eastern Europe”
(Chair: Filip Černoch, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic)
The environmental goals of the European Union reflect the growing consensus on the necessity to limit the energy usage of coal, oil, and natural gas in order to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases significantly. In this Panel the case studies of energy sector transformation processes from the CEE region are provided, shedding some light on how the low-carbon technologies breaks through to the conventional energy systems, changing the way the energy is handled in this area.

“Sustaining and entrenching energy transitions. The challenge of sector coupling and sector integration”
(Chair: Jörg Kemmerzell, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany)
Sector coupling (i.e. interconnection of electricity, heat, and transport & mobility) represents a specifically intricate challenge for the prospective governance of energy transitions. Sector coupling causes specific problems of sectoral integration, since it requires the conjunction of different policy arenas constituted by different actors, institutions and logics. The Panel invites empirical case studies and comparative analyses that describe the various ways of dealing with the challenge and provide an insight into both country-specific and general perspectives on the issue.

“Political and social divisions over the energy issue”
(Chairs: Lorenz Kammermann, Eawag, Switzerland/Clau Dermont, University of Bern, Switzerland)
Political parties, interest groups as well as ordinary citizens play a central role in regulating and implementing more sustainable energy production and consumption. We are interested in factors that drive these actors’ attitudes towards the transformation of the energy system. We welcome contributions that illustrate (e.g.) the effects of beliefs and values, party heuristics, regional and social affiliations on policy-making and implementation and/or how they vary among actors.

“The social acceptance of energy and climate policy: cultural and economic explanations”
(Chair: Tomas Maltby, King’s College London, United Kingdom)
The objective of this Panel is to bring together research that explains the role that social acceptance (and the lack of) plays in facilitating/undermining energy transitions, including work conceptualising the link between populism and climate scepticism and exploring the role that scientific experts have on public opinion towards climate and energy policy.

“Energy transition and the social question: Conflicts, participation and populist forces. Does the idea of sustainability threaten to be lost in the whirlpool of events?“
(Chairs: Jörg Radtke, University of Siegen, Germany/ Stefan Wurster, Technical University Munich, Germany)
While the solution of the climate change problem is urgently required, the energy transition in some welfare nations is being put under increasing pressure by social, political and economic counter-movements. The planned Panel will examine the following questions in more detail: At local level, which examples of concrete conflict situations based on social inequality can be found? At national level, where can we prove that contrary situations lead to standstill and paralysis? At international/regional level, where can we point out that international and supranational efforts are failing?

References
[1] Miller CA, Richter J, O’Leary J. Socio-energy systems design: A policy framework for energy transitions. Energy Research & Social Science 2015; 6:29–40.
[2] Nance MT, Boettcher WA. Conflict, cooperation, and change in the politics of energy interdependence: An introduction. Energy Research & Social Science 2017; 24:1–5.
[3] Geels FW, Berkhout F, van Vuuren DP. Bridging analytical approaches for low-carbon transitions. Nature Climate change 2016;6(6):576–83.
[4] Turnheim B, Berkhout F, Geels F, Hof A, McMeekin A, Nykvist B et al. Evaluating sustainability transitions pathways: Bridging analytical approaches to address governance challenges. Global Environmental Change 2015; 35:239–53.
[5] Hess DJ, Brown KP. Green tea: Clean-energy conservatism as a countermovement. Environmental Sociology 2016; 3(1):64–75.
[6] Paramati SR, Apergis N, Ummalla M. Financing clean energy projects through domestic and foreign capital: The role of political cooperation among the EU, the G20 and OECD countries. Energy Economics 2017; 61:62–71.
[7] Sovacool BK. How long will it take?: Conceptualizing the temporal dynamics of energy transitions. Energy Research & Social Science 2016; 13:202–15.
[8] Sovacool BK, Geels FW. Further reflections on the temporality of energy transitions: A response to critics. Energy Research & Social Science 2016; 22:232–7.

Call for sessions: STS Conference Graz, May 7-8, 2018

The STS Conference Graz 2018 is the joint Annual Conference of the Institute of Science, Technology and Society Studies at Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt|Wien|Graz (STS), the Inter-University Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture (IFZ) and the Institute for Advanced Studies on Science, Technology and Society (IAS-STS).

In our Call for Sessions we suggest the following thematic fields (Gender-Technology-Environment, Digitalization of Society, Life Sciences/Biotechnology, Sustainable and Innovative Public Procurement & Ecodesign, Towards Low-Carbon Energy and Mobility Systems, Sustainable Food Systems) and we would like to encourage participants to think outside the box by combining thematic fields and considering intersections: http://www.sts-conference-graz.aau.at.

Sessions do not need to be limited to academic paper presentations. We encourage you to suggest interactive and innovative session formats too, such as discussion groups, slow talks, etc.

Please let us know in case you plan an alternative setting by briefly describing it.

For submitting your session abstract, please use this online form and send an abstract (max. 500 words) no later than October 31, 2017.

New book: Mise à l’épreuve des pratiques sociales : la recherche appliquée chez EDF

Isabelle Garabuau-Moussaoui, Magali Pierre (dir.), Pratiques sociales et usages de l’énergie, Paris, Lavoisier, Editions Tec & Doc, coll. « Socio-économie de l’énergie », 2016, 253 p., ISBN : 978-2-7430-2021-7.

Des crises pétrolières à la loi de transition énergétique, en passant par les différents événements nationaux et mondiaux concernant l’environnement et l’énergie, différents acteurs ont appelé à un changement de comportements des utilisateurs finaux d’énergie, appuyés par des analyses de l’homo oeconomicus (agent mu par sa rationalité économique) et de l’homo ecologicus (agent mu par ses valeurs environnementales). Cette démarche, qui n’a pas porté tous les fruits attendus, considère les comportements comme points d’aboutissement des politiques publiques, des dispositifs techniques ou des offres.

Cet ouvrage propose de renverser cette perspective. Posant les pratiques sociales comme point de départ, notre démarche consiste à appréhender leur diversité et leur ancrage quotidien et à saisir leurs logiques propres, pour analyser ensuite comment les outils et dispositifs sont mobilisés dans ces pratiques.

Dans un premier temps, les pratiques sociales et activités qui produisent une consommation d’énergie sont étudiées, afin de montrer comment les usagers jouent avec les systèmes, les équipements, les expérimentations, les catégories, les prescriptions. Dans un second temps, l’analyse se décale vers les acteurs intermédiaires, afin de prendre en compte les dispositifs socio-techniques, les acteurs et les instruments. C’est ainsi le « façonnement social » des technologies et la « fabrique des pratiques » qui sont explorés. Enfin, le rapport entre normes et pratiques (imbrication ou décalage) est examiné, en s’attachant aux discours portés par les ménages et les médias sur les consommations d’énergie et en analysant ce que chacun en raconte, dans ses actes langagiers.

Les contributions alternent entre restitutions d’enquêtes empiriques originales et travaux de synthèse faisant le point sur une notion. L’acteur de terrain comme le chercheur académique et l’étudiant pourront ainsi tirer profit de plusieurs niveaux de lecture correspondant à des formats de papier qui se complètent.

Sommaire
Introduction générale
Isabelle Garabuau- Moussaoui et Magali Pierre

PARTIE 1 – LOGIQUES D’ACTION

CHAPITRE 1
Le consommateur- producteur d’énergie : des pratiques énergétiques en transition
Véronique Beillan

CHAPITRE 2
Acheter un appareil électroménager efficace
Caroline Escoffier

CHAPITRE 3
L’engagement dans une expérimentation d’effacement : des attitudes aux projets énergétiques des ménages
Cécile Caron et Mathieu Durand- Daubin

CHAPITRE 4
Précaires en milieu rural : quelles pratiques énergétiques ?
Dominique Le Roux

CHAPITRE 5
Expérimenter le véhicule hybride rechargeable dans la durée. Décrire et expliquer une nouvelle pratique sociale
Magali Pierre

CHAPITRE 6
Pratiques quotidiennes et rapport à la performance énergétique dans les bâtiments du secteur tertiaire : comment les occupants vivent au quotidien, entre figure de l’usager, du salarié et du consommateur- citoyen
Isabelle Garabuau- Moussaoui

PARTIE 2 – ACTEURS, FILIÈRES ET DISPOSITIFS

CHAPITRE 7
L’approche « par les instruments » des politiques visant influencer les pratiques énergétiques. Points de repère et perspectives pour les sciences sociales de l’énergie
Arthur Jobert

CHAPITRE 8
Dépenses énergétiques des ménages en Europe
Rachel Guyet, Ferenc Fodor et Dominique Le Roux

CHAPITRE 9
La « mise en société » du compteur d’électricité communicant Linky.
Enseignements sociologiques de la trajectoire d’innovation d’un outil de régulation économique
Aude Danieli

CHAPITRE 10
Travailler dans une école « zéro énergie » : pratiques sociales, enjeux professionnels et impacts sur la pédagogie
Isabelle Garabuau- Moussaoui

CHAPITRE 11
La maîtrise de l’énergie vue comme la conception d’une situation durable (appropriée et efficace) : apports de l’analyse ergonomique des activités domestiques
Myriam Fréjus

CHAPITRE 12
Les véhicules électriques, des démonstrateurs au prisme d’approches multidisciplinaires
Thierry Brincourt et Magali Pierre

PARTIE 3 – ÉVOLUTION DES NORMES DE TRANSITION ÉNERGÉTIQUE ET DE CONFORT

CHAPITRE 13
La question énergétique : entre pratiques sociales et problème public. Un exemple en région Provence- Alpes- Côte d’Azur (PACA)
Jérémy Bouillet

CHAPITRE 14
Liens entre attitudes à l’égard des économies d’énergie et valeurs
Béatrice Hammer et Monique Wach

CHAPITRE 15
Discours émergents et élaboration de nouvelles normes sociales : la médiatisation de la consommation durable
Ferenc Fodor et Patrick Couton- Wyporek

CHAPITRE 16
Le chaud et le froid des politiques énergétiques : des usages de la climatisation à leur prévention
Sophie Bouly de Lesdain

CHAPITRE 17
L’effet de la crise sur les ménages : Représentations, perceptions et pratiques
Christiane Legris – Desportes et Nina Testut

CHAPITRE 18
Faire preuve de discernement à propos des économies d’énergie : un nouvel énoncé des ménages/citoyens
Mathieu Brugidou

CHAPITRE 19
Températures du séjour en hiver : entre idéal et préconisations
Jérôme Cubillé

POSTFACES

POSTFACE 1
Les pratiques sociales à l’appui de la prospective énergétique ?
Catherine Kasbi

POSTFACE 2
Le besoin d’une connaissance en sciences humaines et sociales sur l’énergie sans cesse renouvelé
Karine Berthonnet