Conference report

Energy Transitions Revisited: The Material and Socio-Political Dimensions of Renewable Energy Technologies

Linda Wallbott & Judith Kreuter Climate Change, Conference report, Energy, Institutions 0 Comment
Energy Transitions Revisited: The Material and Socio-Political Dimensions of Renewable Energy Technologies

by Linda Wallbott & Judith Kreuter, Institute of Political Science / Technische Universität Darmstadt

Renewable energies are often regarded as a silver bullet to abundant social and ecological problems, amongst them the rising energy-hunger and the challenges of anthropogenic climate change. However, the transition towards renewable energies is paved with conflict – be they discursive contestation, resource competition (including access to land), or concerning policy aims and trade-offs. Read more

The enforced expansion of extractive frontiers: struggles over power, meaning and knowledge

Cristina Espinosa & Fabricio Rodríguez Conference report, Extractive Industries, Identity, Knowledge, Power
The enforced expansion of extractive frontiers: struggles over power, meaning and knowledge

Dr. Cristina Espinosa, Arnold Bergstraesser Institute, Freiburg

Fabricio Rodríguez, University of Jena

The extraction of natural resources has intensified and expanded since the 1990s, gaining greater significance as a disputed field of social and political tensions since the turn of the century. While some actors compete over access to and control of natural resources, others emphasize the urgency to reverse the exponential expansion of extractive activities. Conflicts over the uneven distribution of risks and benefits associated to the exploration and production of resources have proliferated accordingly. Read more