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.
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