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Second Call for Paper Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Annual Conference 2015 Wednesday 2 to Friday 4 September 2015, Exeter, UK *Individual and collective imaginaries of energy: storying energy in the past, present and future * *Sponsored by the Energy Geographies Working Group* Convenors: Dr Mel Rohse, The University of Birmingham, [log in to unmask]; Dr Rosie Day, The University of Birmingham, [log in to unmask]; Dr Joe Smith, The Open University, [log in to unmask] *Abstract:* To date, a high proportion of social research on energy uses has focused on the individual as an energy consumer, with behaviour to be changed through economic enticement and technological intervention. This vision is articulated as a narrative that has come to dominate energy research and policy, effectively overlooking “energy use as a system of social processes” (Moezzi and Janda, 2013: 214), which is embedded in specific localities and temporalities. This runs several risks, such as hindering our understanding of energy practices, disengaging the public from energy conversations and limiting the emergence of new narratives of socio-energy relations. However, opportunity may be offered by narrative research which endeavours to create a space where culturally dominant stories meet counter stories, a contested site where new stories can be imagined (Bamberg and Andrews, 2004). For this session, we welcome papers that use stories (defined broadly) as an imaginative approach to engage with how people live, have lived and might live with energy. Contributions may address, for example - Collective imaginaries of energy - Community visioning of future socio-energy relations - Shared or contested histories of energy production and consumption - Stories of energy and social change - Narratives of energy and place / place-making - Complexities and contradictions within stories of energy Please send abstracts of no more than 200 words by 30th January to Mel Rohse ([log in to unmask]). References: Moezzi, M. and Janda, K.B. (2013) Redirecting research about energy and people: from “if only” to “social potential”. ECEE summer study proceedings available online: http://proceedings.eceee.org/visabstrakt.php?event=3&doc=1-379-13 [accessed 28 November 2014] Bamberg, M. and Andrews, M. (eds) (2004) *Considering counter-narratives: narrating, resisting, making sense*. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.