The political construction of renewable energy resources
The urgent need to prevent the worst effects of climate change and to preserve a habitable earth is widely recognized. The massive shift to non-fossil forms of energy, so-called renewables, confronts us with (new) pulsations of ecosystems (wind speed, solar radiation, ocean currents) and the need to install infrastructure in myriad new environments. This changes our relation to energy and the environment, and raises questions of acceptance in many countries.
The politics underlying the tensions around renewable energy developments are localized, diverse and controversial: they depend on the way in which renewable energy developments are articulated with the actors, territories and environment that are supposed to welcome them.
Dr. Nadai’s lecture will build on case studies of renewable energy developments in France and Germany in order to follow the social and technical process by which parts of our environment are constructed as renewable energy resources. It will discuss on this basis the politics and the democratic dimension of energy transition processes, which ensues.
