Shows
AnthroArtMaking innovation more social: countering patterns of exclusion in Dutch sustainable transitions - Razia Jaggoe, Marten Boekelo, DuneWorksIn the West of Amsterdam there is an area that used to be occupied by light industry, but which since has been designated as a new area for housing development. Surrounding the area is a working-class neighbourhood with homes built in the first half of the 20th century. Rather than giving corporate developers free range, the municipality has also given space to citizen initiatives and community development. One project to come out of that is a climate neutral neighbourhood that aims at self-sufficiency. This essay is about in- and exclusion dynamics in sustainable innovation trajectories. As we will show...2024-01-2922 min
The Social Life of EnergyThe transformative potential of collective entrepreneurshipDear reader,Imagine a future in which we’ve moved decisively to sustainable energy sources and not only that – imagine that that transformation was managed and owned to a large extent by citizens, banded together in cooperatives, foundations and not-for-profit companies. How would that transition have happened? To answer (parts of) that question, I talked to geographers Emma Folmer (University of Groningen) and Benedikt – or Ben, for Social Life of Energy readers – Schmid (University of Freiburg). They used their research into community-based and community-oriented initiatives to jointly tackle the question: is systemic change possible, through the many...2021-12-2234 min
The Social Life of EnergyPlace-attachment as powerful resource in social innovationHello everyone,continuing my report on ‘webinars about what collaboration looks like in social innovation’. Today, I’m sharing insights from a keynote at the Social Innovation in the Energy Transition conference. The presentation was delivered by a scholar who I presume needs no introduction: Patrick Devine-Wright. (If you need an introduction, start here.) You can also listen to today’s edition. I start off with the previous edition on Jamie Cross’ presentation, so if you missed that one, you’re in luck! If you didn’t, fast forward to a little over halfway.Devine-Wrigh...2021-12-1516 min
The Social Life of Energy"Fit to Serve": Over vernieuwende verdienmodellen voor duurzame energieBelow you’ll find the transcript of the podcast about the “Fit to Serve” social business model research. The conversation is in Dutch, so the transcript is as well, but if you’re really interested in subject matter, you might trying run this URL through translate.google.com or copy paste up to 5,000 characters at a time into https://www.deepl.com/translator. Of course, you can also get into contact with my interviewees, Ruth Mourik (contact info, LinkedIn) and Renske Bouwknegt (contact info, LinkedIn), directly.Sociaal ondernemen in de energiesector“De bedrijven die in staat zijn...2021-11-1731 min
The Social Life of EnergyThe visible hand of environmental justiceBefore starting off the newsletter proper, I’d like share some meta-reflections on the IPCC report:Arthur Petersen (Prof. Science & Technology, UCL) is pleased:Scientists are no longer afraid to tell it like it is: humans are causing the recent warming of the planet. They are more self-confident. But what also has changed is that people are more willing to listen to them. (in Dutch newspaper NRC)But they’re not telling quite like it is. Emily Atkin (journalist, Heated newsletter):if you only read the summary for policymakers, you’ll find o...2021-08-1109 min
The Social Life of EnergyThe (messy) work of innovationHappy Monday, folks,Some inspiration for a creative week. What does it mean to ‘innovate’? Many look for the decisive mark of the singular genius or the cutting-edge company. Perhaps the best-known recent example is Elon Musk and Tesla. Not too long ago it was Steve Jobs and Apple. However, you might be familiar with Mariana Mazzucato’s retelling of Jobs’ (iPhone) story. In her reconstruction, she shows how all the constituent technologies of the iPhone – the HTTP protocol, GPS, LCD displays – were technologies developed with state support and often within public bodies. All fundamental innovation h...2021-07-2613 min
The Social Life of EnergyOwnership, appropriation and legitimacy of wind turbines“As a nimby, you start researching and thinking critically. They are pushing through their principles, without sufficiently taking into account the well-being of citizens and the natural environment.” – Amsterdam activist against turbines (Volkskrant newspaper).“The men are suspected to send threatening letters to wind farm employees, creating a black paper with libellous texts and threatening to dump asbestos (which indeed occurred near wind turbine locations in 2018 and 2019.)” – Trouw newspaper report about a court case against two farmers.Dear folks,Welcome to the final instalment of my improvised triptych about what makes successful aeolian power genera...2021-04-1431 min
The Social Life of EnergyAchieving reliable service in corrupt electricity sectors (lessons from Lebanon)Last week I teased my interview with Muzna and Neil about tackling corruption in the Lebanese electricity sector. They wrote the report about it (together with Ali Ahmad and Marc Ayoub). Last week you got the gist, but now, you can hear - or read - the whole interview! Find out more about what achieving reliable electricity meant for the people involved, about the intricacies of the political settlement and about how poor governance and poor uptake of renewable energy capacity hang together. (You can also listen to this podcast on Spotify, Apple, Stitcher or wherever you get your...2021-02-1718 min
The Social Life of EnergyEnergy for a decent lifeDear people,Recently I explored the idea that there might be moments particularly productive of change. A break in routines, because of a life transition (a new job, new house, new kid) or because of a societal crisis (say, a pandemic or, uhm, apocalyptic wildfires). The result of that exploration was, in a nutshell: yes, certain moments can make change possible, but not as much as you might think.The limited reach of these transitional moments comes down in large part to the fact that a lot of the execution of what we might want...2020-09-3021 min
The Social Life of EnergyChange in an obdurate world. Interview with Tineke van der SchoorI’m talking with Tineke van der Schoor about what makes change possible in the energy sector. One key factor: networks. Especially networks that can span different scales. Tineke recently defended her PhD thesis Strategies for Energy Reconfigurations: Obduracy, values and scripts, happy occasion for this talk.The podcast is in Dutch, so if you’re curious but Dutch is not going to do it for you, please check out the accompanying newsletter.Enjoy! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get...2020-09-0215 min
The Social Life of EnergyWhat do we need citizens for anyway?Dear folks,In the fall of 2019 (which seems disturbingly close; what happened to 2020?), I wrote about the importance of understanding people in context. Energy practices and energy values are developed in our relation to the things and people around us. Today’s podcast returns to this topic with what actually happened in 2020: SARS-CoV-2. Below you’ll find a small bullet-point summary of the main points, but before that I’d like to give you a quick preamble, extrapolating some implications of the work by Butler, Ryghaug and colleagues that I cover here.Welcome back to SLE! S...2020-07-1619 min
The Social Life of EnergyInclusive energy transitions are about pace and choiceHi, today I’m talking with Sylvia Breukers from Duneworks, a energy research and consultancy firm. We talk about how to allow for diversity and address inequality in sustainable energy (innovation) projects. We do this in Dutch, so if this means you’re left out, my sincere apologies, but maybe you’d like to check out the newsletter! It’s a condensed version of our chat here.https://sociallifeofenergy.substack.com/p/how-to-make-space-by-making-a-littleFind a transcript of this podcast here: https://sociallifeofenergy.substack.com/p/full-interview-with-sylvia-breukersWhere Sylvia works: http://www.duneworks.nl/We...2020-07-0122 min
The Social Life of EnergyDesign anthropology: crafting the future of renewable energyToday I talk with Abhigyan Singh from Delft Technical University. For his PhD research, which he concluded last year, he developed an approach he calls design anthropology. It is a way of catching the glimpse of a potential future - by building a prototype of it. Check out what he means by it and what it can mean for the energy sector in transition.* I covered Abhigyan’s research earlier, in this post:https://sociallifeofenergy.substack.com/p/where-does-the-power-of-community* The podcast mentions Rapid Rural Appraisal; check the Wikipedia page on it here:...2020-05-2116 min
The Social Life of EnergyAre smart cities sustainable cities?First of all, last week an email tragedy of Greek proportions took place. I wrote an unusually long post and decided it wasn’t actually fit for email reading and decided to make it a web-only. I then created a truncated version of that longer post meant to be sent out to you. However, I forgot to mark the first one as ‘web-only’ in my dashboard. Thus, my good intentions lead to your inbox hell. My apologies.Secondly, I have a bunch of things on my plate this week, so I’m only sending out this podcast, in which...2020-04-2316 min
The Social Life of EnergyEnergiebeleid voor iedereenGender, poverty and inclusive energy transitions:Today’s episode is my interview with Mariëlle Feenstra. We spoke in our native tongue, apologies to basically everybody in the world except for a negligible statistical error (aka the inhabitants of the low lands). We talked about the ways in which gender, class and energy intersect and what it means for how we design our energy system of the future. If you want to know more, check out the companion newsletter edition: https://sociallifeofenergy.substack.com/p/intersectional-energy-policy-or-goingFor the full transcript in Dutch, check her...2020-04-0917 min
The Social Life of EnergySLE Podcast!Dear folks,some of you suggested this newsletter might do well in audio format too. I’m not saying that isn’t true, but at the very least, it’s work in progress 😁. Introducing the Social Life of Energy Podcast! Once I get the technicalities in order, you will be able to download these episodes wherever you get your podcast fix. For now, you can hit play somewhere from here!The first episode is me reading out loud an earlier issue on gender and renewable energy. I chose this one because tomorrow, I’m basically back with t...2020-04-0710 min