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*Cities and energy transitions: past, present, future*
International roundtable conference. Autun, France. 1-4 June 2009
Organisers: /Olivier Coutard, Sylvy Jaglin and Jonathan Rutherford
Université Paris-Est, Latts (UMR CNRS 8134)
*Rationale *
As a result of combined concerns about peak oil, greenhouse gas
emissions and socio-economic issues, the desirability or unavoidability
of some form of energy transition is a major contemporary global issue
(1). At the same time, the diversity of societal contexts in which
transitions may emerge and may be shaped implies that we cannot view
transition processes as singular, universal and linear. Energy
transitions, if they actually occur, may result in deep changes in the
spatial organisation, economic performance and social cohesion of
societies, but the precise nature of these changes will differ between
places and also over time. It is therefore crucial to better understand
the underlying processes of energy transitions, the key factors that
drive or hinder change in a given direction, and the major policy issues
in the short and long terms. Indeed nascent energy transitions will only
develop more fully in the long term, over at least the next
half-century, which opens up the need for future-oriented or foresight
approaches.
In order to help understand these complex, multidimensional and
multilevel processes, the aim of this roundtable conference is to
confront studies of current emerging transitions in contemporary
Northern, high-income (and highly energy-intensive) societies with both
studies of past transitions (e.g., the pan-European wood crisis at the
turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; the electrification of
Western societies in the first half of the twentieth century) and
research on the distinctive, though related, transitions currently
emerging in many lower-income countries, concerning for example shifts
from various types of fuels and sources of energy to an
electricity-based energy system.
The conference will focus on cities and urban regions, understood as
multiscalar environments and a key part of broader patterns in the
spatial, economic and socio-political organisation of societies. While
cities are held to be the locus of a predominant share of energy
consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, it would be misleading, in
both conceptual and policy terms, to view cities as autonomous
sources or causes of energy use or greenhouse gas emissions. Urban
dynamics are very often dependent on changes and policies instigated at
other levels (e.g. national, supranational) and related to apparently
non-urban issues (agricultural transformations, demographic evolutions,
climate change
), so how cities both shape and are shaped by past,
present and future energy transitions must be understood within this
broader pattern.
Urbanised societies are particularly dependent on energy (and on fossil
fuels in particular) and pressure on energy resources is likely to be
exacerbated in various ways by the anticipation of and adaptation to
climate change. This city-and-energy compact is produced, reinforced and
reconfigured through for example: (a) the infrastructures, networks,
technological systems and engineering solutions which distribute energy
to and within urban areas, (b) the ways in which these networks and
services both adapt and are adapted to particular geographical
areas/configurations, (c) the varying types of consumption and user
choices which constitute an urban energy consumption profile, (d) the
ways in which national and local governments clearly acknowledge the
economic, social and environmental functions of energy services and
frame them as a public concern/issue/problem.
Hence the organisation and functioning of urban systems, spaces and
societies may be deeply challenged by emerging energy transition
processes. The spatial organisation of cities, their building stock and
the energy flows and infrastructures on which transitions rest are being
questioned with regard to increasingly preeminent energy efficiency
concerns; the relations between cities, their hinterland and their
broader environment are placed under close scrutiny; embedded urban ways
of life and everyday practices are contested all with potentially
disruptive economic, social and environmental consequences. The
discussion of a variety of case studies at the conference will help
improve understanding of the complex and interacting spatial,
technological and social processes at stake, anticipations of potential
future evolutions, and the implications of energy transitions for urban
and urban-oriented policies.
It arises from the above considerations that the urban implications of
energy transitions are inherently of a political nature, simultaneously
reflecting, reinforcing and transforming existing institutional and
governance arrangements, consensual and contested relationships between
different actors, and the unequal distribution of power within and among
social groups. Technical innovation, spatial distribution and lifestyle
choice aspects of energy in cities are all always shaped by, even
dependent on, the persistent, dynamic and contested political
negotiations defining urban energy provision and use. The organisers are
therefore particularly interested by place-based case studies of the
urban politics and policies of energy transitions.
We suggest below a non-exhaustive list of issues of interest for the
conference:
To what extent are current urban energy policies/trajectories
(crises?) historically founded or configured?
What can we learn from past configurations for contemporary or
prospective processes?
To what extent is the common, global nature of energy-related
tensions reinforcing a convergence between different kinds of cities
(North and South, global cities and smaller cities
) in terms of their
available responses, policies, repercussions of these, etc? Or do cities
continue to be differently positioned in relation to these issues by
their specificities, contexts, political arrangements, etc?
To what extent do urban energy questions need to be framed as a
multi-dimensional (multi-sector, multi-actor, multi-scalar) process
suggesting a diversity of local trajectories? If so, how can we theorise
across different cases?
Beyond the technical domain, might energy transitions and their
urban implications be more dependent on social-political innovation than
on technical innovation? What forms might this social-political
innovation take, what kinds of tools/mechanisms/instruments might be
mobilised, and with what implications?
How can we evaluate the actual or potential sustainability of
energy transition processes? What are the opportunities and instruments
available for policy-makers and other institutions and groups to promote
technological and behavioural change? What are the conceivable urban
strategies and policies that may promote more sustainable directions?
What are the limits to urban energy transitions? Are there possible
alternatives (and if not, why not)? Who are the winners and losers of
urban energy transitions, and how might we work towards more socially
just and politically inclusive transitions?
*Format and practicalities*
This international roundtable conference is being organised by Latts
(http://www.latts.cnrs.fr/) at the end of an ANR (French National
Research Agency) funded research project on infrastructure provision and
sustainable development in European cities. It will bring together
around 30 invited researchers (from differing disciplines: geography,
planning, history, STS, politics, sociology) and (French/European)
practitioners working on these themes over a three day event in the
magnificent surroundings of Autun in Burgundy, around a one and a half
hour TGV train journey to the south of Paris.
Hotels website: http://www.hotelursulines.fr/
City of Autuns website: http://www.autun.fr/
Travel to and from Autun by train from Paris will be organised for the
group. Participants will therefore be expected to arrive in Paris no
later than the afternoon of Monday 1 June 2009. Sessions will take place
between the morning of Tuesday 2 June and midday on Thursday 4 June.
Note that, because of Autuns relatively remote location, it is not
advisable to plan to arrive directly on the Tuesday morning. Conference
funding will cover accommodation costs as well as travel from Paris to
Autun and back. Participants will be asked to cover their travel costs
to Paris
Around 15-20 submitted papers will be distributed in advance to be
discussed at the conference in a roundtable format with discussants and
open floor discussion (30-45 mins per paper). The conference language
will be English. Participants will be expected to have read all the
papers prior to the conference. Please note that papers will not
therefore be presented individually. The conference will result in the
publication of a book and/or theme issue of an international
peer-reviewed journal.
A title and one page abstract should be sent to Jonathan Rutherford
([log in to unmask]) by 15 January 2009. Acceptance will be
confirmed by 31 January. Full papers (8000 words max.) will then need to
be sent by 15 May 2009 at the latest.
The scientific committee of the conference consists of the three
organisers and:
Professor Sabine Barles, Institut français durbanisme, Marne-La-Vallée
(France)
Professor Martin Melosi, University of Houston, Texas (USA)
Jacques Theys, Head of the Foresight Centre of the French Ministry for
Sustainable Development (France)
Notes:
(1) We understand energy transition broadly as referring to a process
of potentially radical change in the resources and technologies involved
in energy generation as well as in patterns of energy consumption.
Jonathan Rutherford
Chargé de recherche CNRS / CNRS Researcher
LATTS (Laboratoire Techniques, Territoires et Sociétés)
Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées
6-8 avenue Blaise Pascal
F-77455 Marne-la-Vallée
France
Tel: +33 (0)1.64.15.38.30
Fax: +33 (0)1.64.61.60.71
Email: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
http://latts.cnrs.fr/
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