Renewable Societies : Energy Transitions and Life After Fossil Fuels

What could a renewable society look like? Whose blueprint of a green future will prevail? Who will benefit most, and who will bear the costs? Bringing together leading scholars, practitioners and activists from across a wide range of disciplines, this book explores the profound social, cultural, and political transformations accompanying the global transition to renewable energy systems.

Drawing on insights from empirical case studies around the world, the book explores seven critical scenes of the renewable energy transition in the making: the Bank (financing and speculation), the Mine (extractions and resources), the Factory (building and generating), the Grid (connections and transmissions), the Home (reproduction and relations), the Commons (justice and agonisms) and the Dump (waste and reminders).

While renewable energy promises obvious environmental benefits, this collection examines the less evident social, economic, political, and cultural implications of a transition to renewables.