Paper short abstract:

As part of a project about the future role of social sciences in energy research, 18 meetings were held across Europe with politicians, administrators and stakeholders working in energy. This communication presents those results and what place could anthropology seek within those future research.

Paper long abstract:

As part of a H2020 European project about the future role of social sciences in energy research, early 2018 18 meetings were held across Europe with politicians, administrators and stakeholders working in the field of energy. The goal was to seek future research problems. During the meetings the participants also had to express themselves about how they envisioned the role of Social Sciences and Humanities. As part of this communication, we wish to go back to this experience in order to question the research subjects which emerged from those meetings as well as the role assigned to the social sciences. This communication will present those results and what place could anthropology seek within those future research.

Paper short abstract:

Through an empirical focus on the way in which Norwegian energy corporations handle CSR in their international operations, this study discuss dynamics between neoliberalization and various corporate models for company-state-society interaction.

Paper long abstract:

While energy industries are central to the working of society and a major concern of state policies, little ethnographic work has been conducted at the interface between states and energy corporations. An understanding of this is crucial as energy companies are to a larger degree state-owned than other companies. Investigating how different ownership models influence the way in which companies operate internationally, opens up for discussing dynamics between neoliberalization and various corporate models for company-state-society interaction and, moreover, how such dynamics draw on legacies of and shape futures of energy-related practices and governance.

Norwegian energy corporations, which to a large extent are state-owned, started operating abroad around 1990. This was a consequence of the opening up of international markets as well as deregulation at home. While working far away from home, these energy corporations relate and adapt to local and national particularities in place of operation. Also, the standards and procedures for CSR or sustainability to which they relate are set and managed by international institutions. And, in their quest for profit, they compete globally with other transnational corporations. Does the 'Nordic model' make a difference in this context, and if so, to what extent? Furthermore, does it make a difference that the corporations are wholly or partly state-owned?

This case study explores these questions by studying the way in which the major Norwegian energy corporation Statkraft handle CSR at various levels of the corporation in relation to their operations in Turkey.

Paper short abstract:

Exploring the materiality of energy carriers and its infrastructure is key to understanding energy consumption and the prospects for a renewable transition. I make this argument by comparing the provisioning and consumption of electricity, cooking gas (LPG), and petrol in a Nepali town.

Paper long abstract:

I compare the movement and consumption of electricity, gas, and petrol in a Nepali town called Lubhu. I argue that studies of energy consumption are partial at best, if they do not also attend to the materiality of available energy carriers and their related infrastructures. I will use this perspective to reveal challenges that are likely to surface in connection with a renewable energy transition in Lubhu. The abovementioned energy carriers and their infrastructures are de/centralized in different ways at different points during their journeys into local homes. All three of them have also been (varyingly) short in supply for years. Significantly, the potential for hydropower development in Nepal is great, but in 2016, it had been over a decade since there was enough electricity production to fulfil demand. However, despite years of frequent power outages, alternative electricity sources and off-grid solutions were not very common. I outline four main reasons for this: The "structural momentum" (Hughes 1983) of the state electricity grid, the high costs of decentralized alternatives (particularly solar power), a mismatch between solar energy production and local energy consumption practices, and the usefulness of fossil fuels. Both gas and petrol are easier to stock than electricity, and their supply is less centralized. This makes shortages easier (and less expensive) to deal with. In other words, gas and petrol become more flexible than electricity. Therefore, they are exceptionally useful, at least in a country where climate change is "barely on the radar" (Sharma 2016).

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the socio-cultural context of earthquakes induced by natural gas extraction in Groningen. It unpacks local meanings of gas extraction and ideas about natural resources, energy, and region/nation, and places those within debates about justice, climate change, and energy futures.

Paper long abstract:

Earthquakes induced by conventional natural gas extraction in the province of Groningen, the Netherlands, are rapidly changing the (built) landscape, as well as affecting identities, relationships, and subjectivities. Once considered the nation's treasure, in the minds of many people from Groningen the gas has become associated with a loss of security regarding landscape, government & nation, and conventional technology.

Drawing on four years of ethnographic fieldwork, this paper unpacks altered meanings of gas extraction, and natural resource extraction in general, in the wake of these seismic events. Furthermore, it examines ideas regarding natural resources, citizenship, and energy practices in the context of the gas extraction and addresses the complex interweavings of economic interests, social justice, and environmental concerns. Finally, the paper considers to what extent these indigenous understandings and experiences of the earthquakes and the gas extraction resonate with and further propel larger debates about justice, climate change, and energy futures, and how they inform energy policies and political platforms.

Paper short abstract:

Lignite mining is part of the German "hunger for energy". This has very real consequences for thousands of people in Germany who have to resettle in order to make room for excavations. The ambivalence of energy production, consumption, and the consequences for resettlers is presented in this paper.

Paper long abstract:

The main reason for the mining of lignite and the accompanying resettlement of people is the German energy requirement. This energy requirement has to be met. In Germany this is done by using a mixture of fossil fuel energy, nuclear power and renewable energy sources. The contribution of coal in this mixture has decreased but still has its use. Although renewable energies are to be supported during the course of the energy transition, they cannot cover the entire energy requirement of the country. In connection to this, "lignite" is presented as a partner and transitory technology to cover energy requirements. Therefore, fossil energies are still an integral part of the supply of energy.

But the "hunger for energy" has very real consequences for thousands of people in the Rhenish lignite who have to resettle. An ethnography of the Rhenish lignite area has shown the ambivalence of energy production, consumption, and climate-damaging consequences: there are ethical questions regarding energy politics and resettlements, but then again the increasing energy demands of (post)modern societies need to be fulfilled and fossil fuels are still seen and defined a necessity. In the paper I will present coping strategies of resettlers especially with regard to their own reflective energy consumption, their politicization, their reflections about staying or moving, and their intimate knowledge about being part of a normative political process. Furthermore, I will highlight the possibilities (and problems) of my empirical research focus - the narratives of the resettlers - which offered new insights about the complexity of socio-ecological imagination, knowledge, and memory regarding energy.

Paper short abstract:

France is one of the nations that uses nuclear energy most. This research focuses on local people and their activities. What do they say about the effect of such an industry in the territory?

Paper long abstract:

France is one of the nations that uses nuclear energy most. Most research in the social sciences in France has studied the notion of risk, and the communication process of the industry. This presentation of Water and Energy in the Dordogne Valley, south-west of France, shows the results of a long-term research in the field, upstream with the people who live around five large dams producing hydroelectricity, and more recently downstream on the river basin, the Gironde, near a nuclear powerplant that was built 40 years ago. This research focuses on the local people and their activities related to natural resources in their family businesses. How the economy and the social relationships were transformed when the powerplant was built? What they say about such an industry? The interviews were collected with the official archives of the local government. The narratives are told by the first generation whose lives were transformed by these energies that started to run in the XX° century and have deeply changed the landscape, the environment and the local economy.

Paper short abstract:

Peri-urban areas of capital cities in the Global South are increasingly peopled by migrants from environmental disaster, conflict and deepening rural poverty. How can anthropological understandings of energy practices among these groups help inform ambitions to provide 'sustainable energy for all'?

Paper long abstract:

'Energy on the Move' is a project examining the energy practices of very poor women, men and young people living in informal peri-urban settlements in Nigeria, South Sudan, Nepal and Bangladesh. It asks how people's energy practices are changing, and uses comparative lessons across the study countries. The research has explored the energy practices of those who have experienced displacement as a result of environmental disasters, climate change, or political conflict, and have moved into peri-urban locations. These groups' energy requirements continue to be (poorly) met by biomass. The study's novel purpose is to understand the range of means by which the poor access energy for light, heat and cooking services, and how these may have changed over time. The project questions the assumption among energy transition theorists that improved technologies at affordable prices will bring clean energy options to the poor and marginalised. This paper is the first presentation of findings about how modern technologies and biomass fuels move among users through channels of gift, obligations to extended kin, within patronage of community leaders, and other networks of assistance.

Paper short abstract:

How does global request for green shift towards more sustainable energy economies takes place locally? The focus of the paper is on Nordic and Gulf region business interactions in smart energy sector and sociocultural dimensions of developing energy technologies in intercultural environments.

Paper long abstract:

In 2016, Masdar City, Abu Dhabi's growing cluster for clean-tech companies facilitated the establishment of the Nordic Innovation Hub (NIH) - a business incubator designed to bring Nordic clean technologies to the Gulf. The initiative was formed after the Nordic Council of Ministers provided a mandate to assist Nordic companies in exploring opportunities in green technology market in the Gulf. The paper will focus on challenges and opportunities the Nordic companies face in developing smart energy cooperation projects in the Gulf.

The case is based on a post-doctoral research that aims to explore how the global request for green shift towards more sustainable energy economies takes place locally in particular within cooperation projects. Nordic and Gulf region business interactions in the smart energy sector and the socio-cultural dimensions of developing energy technologies in challenging intercultural environments is the focus of the study.

Paper short abstract:

The paper seeks to explore future imaginations among scientist and local communities, concerning geothermal energy potential in the Andes mountains. Our ethnographic approach proposes to analyse how future imaginations are constantly redefined through practical engagement with earth.

Paper long abstract:

Chile represents one of the largest undeveloped geothermal areas in the world, and geothermal energy projects are understood as a clean and sustainable future energy source, in contrast with many other energy sources, such as hydroelectricity and imported fossil fuels. Nevertheless, social and political dimensions of energy are being recognised as a central challenge, involving multiple and divergent perceptions of energy and practical engagement. The paper seeks to explore affective encounters and future imaginations among scientist and indigenous in rural communities, concerning geothermal energy potential in the Andes mountains. Our ethnographic approach proposes to analyse how future imaginations are constantly redefined through practical engagement with earth. However, earth forces provoke us to think how future imaginations are at the same time exceeded for more-than-human worlds.