General information
Course type | AMUPIE |
Module title | Just transition to low carbon economies |
Language | English |
Module lecturer | prof. UAM dr hab. Aleksandra Lis-Plesińska |
Lecturer's email | alis@amu.edu.pl |
Lecturer position | Professor |
Faculty | Faculty of Anthropology and Cultural Studies |
Semester | 2022/2023 (winter) |
Duration | 30 |
ECTS | 4 |
USOS code | 20-JTT-SL-AMU-PIE |
Timetable
Module aim (aims)
The aim of this module is to present students with the concept of just transition to low carbon economies and to critically discuss different cases of transition. We will deal with the following processes: phasing out coal in vulnerable regions, renewable energy project – their positives and downsides, electric mobility – its societal distribution and energy poverty. The main conceptual apparatus that will be proposed to frame our discussions are different types of justice: distributional, procedural, justice as recognition, epistemic justice. We will discuss different visions of energy futures and socio-technical imaginaries as institutionalized and embedding transition processes in different contexts.
Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)
It is required that participants in this course have a good command of English language – both in speaking and reading – as many readings will be assigned for each class.
Syllabus
Week 1: Introduction: climate change, energy transition and social justice
Week 2: Concepts: dimensions of environmental and energy justice
Week 3: Images, imaginaries and visions of energy future
Week 4: Multilevel perspective on the transition of socio-technical systems
Week 5: Phasing out coal – visions and vulnerabilities
Week 6: Renewable energy sources – green and black renewables
Week 7: Energy consumption and practice theory
Week 8: Energy poverty – how to measure and how to address it
Week 9: Sustainable transportation – urban perspectives
Week 10: Electric mobility – for whom?
Week 11: Autonomous vehicles – a seductive vision of a robot taxi
Week 12: Just transition – global perspectives
Week 13: Students’ presentations
Week 14: Students’ presentations
Week 15: Students’ presentations
Reading list
Recommended readings:
High, Mette M. and Jessica M. Smith. 2019. Energy and Ethics? Special Issues of the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Volume 25(S1)
Mitchell, T. 2011. Carbon democracy: political power in the age of oil. Verson: London, New York.
Jasanoff, Sheila. 2012. Science and public reason. Earthscan from Routledge. Chapter 8. Image and Imagination: the formation of global environmental consciousness.
Dubash, K. N. 2016. Climate Change through the Lens of Energy Transformation. In: Nicholson, S. and Jinnah, S. New Earth Politics: Essays from the Anthropocene. MIT: Cambridge Massachusetts, London, England. Pp. 315-342.
Strauss, S., Rupp, S. and Lous, T. 2013. Cultures of energy: power, practices, technologies. Routledge: London and New York.
Shove, E. and Spurling, N. 2013. Sustainable Practices: Social theory and climate change. Routledge: London and New York.
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F.W. Geels, J. Schot, Typology of sociotechnical transition pathways, Res. Policy 36 (3) (2007) 399–417, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2007.01.003.
- Roberts, F.W. Geels, Conditions for politically accelerated transitions: historical institutionalism, the multi-level perspective, and two historical case studies in transport and agriculture, Technol. Forecast. Soc. Chang. 140 (2019) 221–240, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2018.11.019.
B.K. Sovacool, J. Axsen, S. Sorrell, Promoting novelty, rigor, and style in energy social science: towards codes of practice for appropriate methods and research design, Energy Res. Social Sci. 45 (2018) 12–42, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2018.07.007.
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G.H. Broadbent, D. Drozdzewski, G. Metternicht, Electric vehicle adoption: An analysis of best practice and pitfalls for policy making from experiences of Europe and the US, Geography Compass 12 (2) (2018), e12358, https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12358.
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M.J. van der Kam, A.A.H. Meelen, W.G.J.H.M. van Sark, F. Alkemade, Diffusion of solar photovoltaic systems and electric vehicles among Dutch consumers: implications for the energy transition, Energy Res. Social Sci. 46 (2018) 68–85, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2018.06.003.
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T.M. Skjølsvold, M. Ryghaug, Temporal echoes and cross-geography policy effects: multiple levels of transition governance and the electric vehicle breakthrough, Environ. Innov. Societal Trans. 35 (2020) 232–240, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2019.06.004.
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Plus resources from the Institute for Transportation Studies at UC Berkeley and UC Davis.