 |
 |
*With apologies for previous digest formatting issues (and usual cross-posting apologies)* Call for papers: Examining ‘communities’ as a site of nexus: opportunities and challenges for energy transitions RGS-IBG Annual Conference, London, 30 August - 2 September 2016. Co-sponsors: Energy Geographies Research Group (EnGRG); Planning and Environment Research Group (PERG). Convenors: Emily Creamer (University of Edinburgh); Gerald Taylor Aiken (University of Luxembourg); Bregje van Veelen (University of Edinburgh). Framed within the broader context of the transition towards more sustainable, low-carbon societies, ‘community’ can be a rich site for exploring the tensions of ‘the nexus’. Not only does community offer a useful scale for examining holistic approaches to the management of energy transitions, it also serves as the site of an intriguing nexus between bottom-up activism and top-down energy policy implementation. Governments frequently assume that state support for community-led low-carbon energy initiatives will be of inherent benefit at the local level; however, the incorporation of communities into official government climate change strategies raises many challenging questions about how this is being delivered in practice, for example: - To what extent are community approaches delivering more sustainable outcomes (environmentally, economically and/or socially)? - To what extent are local actors being empowered, rather than being co-opted as a regulatory tool of governance? - What new, if anything, does nexus thought have to add to extant critiques of the role of community? - What potential exists for lessons learned and solidarities formed between various community-as-nexus examples? We welcome papers addressing these points and any others examining community-led, low-carbon energy transitions in the light of nexus thought. The format of the session will be 4 x 15min paper presentations followed by 30min discussion with invited discussant. Prospective presenters should send abstracts of up to 250 words, along with paper title and presenter details, to Emily Creamer ([log in to unmask]) by Wednesday 10th February. -- The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336.