xi
PROLOGUE
pick it apart (through informed analysis) to improve upon it (for
constructive change); for if we let things continue as they are, we are condemning billions of people and many other organisms besides to the suffering entailed by runaway climate change (Wallace-Wells 2019).
The energy system is not only a huge contributor to climate change, it
is also humankind’s greatest accomplishment and most devastating horror
all rolled into one. Nothing has enabled greater human achievement and
progress; nothing has led to more pronounced inequity and irreversible
destruction. Consider the sophisticated command over resources to supply the energy needs of billions on the one hand, and the ruination of
entire ways of life in extracting resources and setting up supply chains to
do so on the other hand. Or a transatlantic jetplane for a millionaire versus
a habitation flooded by damming respectively; or a neon-lit city versus a
fracking landscape—the list is endless.
This book, then, seeks to provide a pick-axe of sorts. It offers an analytical approach to cut into practices of legitimation and examine how
things are propped up, what must yield, and who is pushing for the sorts
of changes that will enable sustainable energy transitions. A scientific way
to evidence common-sense (Jovchelovitch 2008), get an empirical handle
on the opportunities to decarbonise and render equitable our changing
energy systems, and provide a basis for the public to put its feet down
against the acts and actors who would rather watch the world burn, literally, than lose the untenable privileges of a small but powerful group
of elites.
Part I of the book frames what research has already conclusively shown
about feasible and necessary energy transitions, and puts forward an analytical typology of practices of legitimation to make headway towards sustainability in any given instance of energy transition. Part II explains the
invitation to five colleagues to reflect on their varied cases related to energy
transitions in terms of accountability and legitimation, and comprises their
responses to this invitation in the form of five case chapters. Part III synthesises our reflections on how to take forward energy transitions analysis
along such lines. We thus aim to pave a pathway for enmeshed empirical
and theoretical studies of practices of legitimation towards accountable
governance that can enable sustainable energy transitions.
Bergen, Norway
Siddharth Sareen
PROLOGUE
pick it apart (through informed analysis) to improve upon it (for
constructive change); for if we let things continue as they are, we are condemning billions of people and many other organisms besides to the suffering entailed by runaway climate change (Wallace-Wells 2019).
The energy system is not only a huge contributor to climate change, it
is also humankind’s greatest accomplishment and most devastating horror
all rolled into one. Nothing has enabled greater human achievement and
progress; nothing has led to more pronounced inequity and irreversible
destruction. Consider the sophisticated command over resources to supply the energy needs of billions on the one hand, and the ruination of
entire ways of life in extracting resources and setting up supply chains to
do so on the other hand. Or a transatlantic jetplane for a millionaire versus
a habitation flooded by damming respectively; or a neon-lit city versus a
fracking landscape—the list is endless.
This book, then, seeks to provide a pick-axe of sorts. It offers an analytical approach to cut into practices of legitimation and examine how
things are propped up, what must yield, and who is pushing for the sorts
of changes that will enable sustainable energy transitions. A scientific way
to evidence common-sense (Jovchelovitch 2008), get an empirical handle
on the opportunities to decarbonise and render equitable our changing
energy systems, and provide a basis for the public to put its feet down
against the acts and actors who would rather watch the world burn, literally, than lose the untenable privileges of a small but powerful group
of elites.
Part I of the book frames what research has already conclusively shown
about feasible and necessary energy transitions, and puts forward an analytical typology of practices of legitimation to make headway towards sustainability in any given instance of energy transition. Part II explains the
invitation to five colleagues to reflect on their varied cases related to energy
transitions in terms of accountability and legitimation, and comprises their
responses to this invitation in the form of five case chapters. Part III synthesises our reflections on how to take forward energy transitions analysis
along such lines. We thus aim to pave a pathway for enmeshed empirical
and theoretical studies of practices of legitimation towards accountable
governance that can enable sustainable energy transitions.
Bergen, Norway
Siddharth Sareen