(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:
For the Mobile Lives Forum, mobility is understood as the process of how individuals travel across distances in order to deploy through time and space the activities that make up their lifestyles. These travel practices are embedded in socio-technical systems, produced by transport and communication industries and techniques, and by normative discourses on these practices, with considerable social, environmental and spatial impacts.
En savoir plus xFormat
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 ( ) or Caroline Mullen ( ) 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