Energy
A transition towards a renewable energy system brings new roles for users, communities and providers, creating challenges for inclusive governance. Our research asks what transitions towards renewable energy mean for everyday citizen engagement, for the social organisation of energy infrastructures and for sustainability transitions in water and food systems.
We question what energy is used for and for whom: providing heat, light, comfort, mobility for householders, cooperatives, municipalities, industries or sectors of shipping, tourism and transport. With our emphasis on a user perspective, we contribute to the literature on participation and co-creation, energy justice and citizenship. Material objects of research encompass energy generation technologies like wind and solar parks, infrastructures like heat networks and smart grids and devices like heat pumps, cooking stoves and smart meters. We study these in their local contexts and emphasise the connections with parallel transitions such as those in water and food systems.
