Short Abstract:

We explore notions of energy sources as natural commons and practices of commoning that aim at a communal use of energy. How do these shed a new light on the ‘one humanity’ narrative of the Anthropocene – creating new spaces from which to rethink questions of extraction, exploitation and justice?

Long Abstract:

The Anthropocene narrative foregrounds the urgent need for renewable energy transitions. Critics however point out that the ‘one humanity’ narrative of the Anthropocene glosses over the unequal social relations involved in environmental destruction as well as the colonial and post-colonial exploitation of human and extra-human energy. How is the global good of carbon reduction experienced differentially and unequally when new extractive industries are set up for renewable energies and what notions of “commons” emerge in this context? This workshop engages with energy along two (interrelated) understandings of the commons. Firstly, energy sources can be understood as a natural commons in principle available to all but in practice frequently governed through exclusionary property regimes – be that of the state, the market, or communities. We are interested in studies that explore (competing) claims to ownership of energy commons and the kinds of struggles they are embedded in. Moreover, we invite those concerned with divergent registers of critique of what is and what should be wherein the notion of energy commons plays a role. Secondly, energy commons can be conceptualized as social systems characterized by practices of “commoning”. The workshop aims to discuss existing commoning initiatives concerned with communally managing energy sources – such as long-standing communal forms of sharing hydropower or currently emerging urban solar cooperatives. This may include studies that explore what perspectives such initiatives open up for decentralized and non-exploitative relations to energy commons and what challenges they face in the contemporary moment.

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