RGS-IBG 2014: Social justice, mobility and energy demand

  (Session sponsored by Geographies of Justice Working Group and Energy Geographies Working Group)

Organisers: Dr Neil Simcock [1], Dr Caroline Mullen [2], Dr Rosie Day [3], Prof Gordon Walker [1]

The scale of carbon emission reduction needed to limit global climate change is often considered to require profound changes in patterns and levels of energy demand, including in relation to building-related energy consumption and mobility practices.

Whilst ‘sustainability’ is normally the driver and focus of research into energy demand issues, an emerging research agenda has highlighted the relations and potential tensions between energy use, carbon reduction and social justice. High energy consumption can be associated with various injustices; for example, impacts on current and future generations facing resource scarcity and climate change, or inequalities resulting from policies, cultures and infrastructures that favour car-dependent forms of mobility.

However, as recognized by research on energy and mobility poverty, certain amounts, forms and arrangements of energy consumption and mobility may be considered necessary for a minimally decent quality of life and adequate social participation. In ‘industrial’ nations, goals of reducing or managing energy demand and altering patterns of mobility may be in tension with claims of needs, rights and entitlements. Meanwhile, in a ‘developing’ world context, research has emphasised the importance of electricity access and energy consumption in enhancing citizens’ capabilities and quality of life. Different groups may make claims to particular needs or rights, requiring justice in the form of recognition. Without due consideration, policy measures designed to govern, manage or restrict energy demand might exacerbate existing inequalities or create new areas of deprivation. 

Work on energy justice that addresses such issues is gaining momentum but is still relatively underdeveloped. We welcome papers that seek to address questions related to claims about energy rights or needs, energy policy making procedures, and distributional outcomes of energy demand management policies in a variety of settings. In particular, we wish to connect work on such issues in the domain of building-related energy consumption with work on transport and mobility, to explore how notions of justice, rights and need are developed and deployed in these two areas and how we might productively think across them in seeking equitable demand management. 

We also encourage research and/ or comparative analysis from different international contexts.

Paper topics might address, but need not be limited to, the following topics:

• Conceptualising, defining and / or measuring ‘need’ in energy or mobility terms
• The evolution and dynamics of ideas of need and normality, and their implications for energy demand

• How the ‘need’ for mobility and energy consumption might vary between different contexts and social groups (e.g. according to gender, age, location, circumstance).
• Claims making strategies and discourses; recognition or rejection of claims
• Methodologies for  debating needs, rights and entitlements in energy and mobility
• Procedural justice in energy and transport policy making
• Fair governance in energy and transport
• The conceptual frameworks and methods by which social equity is considered in transport and energy policy
• Distributional outcomes of energy and transport policy, regarding both provision and demand reduction

 Format

Short presentations (15 minute + 5 minute questions)

To submit

Please send abstracts no more than 250 words, including title, author name(s), affiliation and email addresses, to either Neil Simcock ( n.simcock1@lancs.ac.uk) or Caroline Mullen ( c.a.mullen@leeds.ac.uk) by no later than Monday 3 ^rd February.

[1] DEMAND Centre, Lancaster University)

[2] DEMAND Centre and Institute for Transport Studies, Leeds University

[3] DEMAND Centre and School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham