“Ethics of Energy?” Presentation

Benjamin Sovacool This presentation investigates how a mix of energy-users from 11 countries perceives energy and environmental issues such as the affordability of electricity and gasoline, the seriousness of climate change, and preferences for different energy systems. The purpose, in part, is to discuss the relationship between consumer perceptions of energy challenges, adoption of renewable […]

Judith Bovensiepen Notions of corporate and social responsibility are often evoked to appease critics– especially in the petroleum industry. This has led to cynical representations of the energy industry as immoral and to important criticisms of the very notion of “ethical capitalism”. By focusing on the planning and implementation of a large-scale petroleum infrastructure project […]

Darren McCauley The aim of this paper is to explore the idea of ‘energy injustice’ when unconnected to a national grid. Mini- and off-grid energy systems have emerged in developed world contexts as solutions to variable energy demand. They have, on the other hand, a long existence in developing world contexts where grid infrastructure is […]

Mette High At a time when the global consumption of energy is rising at an astonishing rate, energy producers are relying on increasingly innovative ways of harvesting energy from fossil fuels, nuclear and renewable resources. As a necessary but precious component for living, the energy that is produced, distributed and consumed raises fundamental questions about […]

Christopher Groves While energy consumption is necessary to support people’s everyday lives in a material and instrumental sense, the ways in which energy is used are also constitutive of ways of life and of identities. The Energy Biographies project at Cardiff University has used biographical narrative interviews and multimodal methods across four case sites in […]

Barbara Holler In the UK fuel poverty is defined by the Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act as: “a person is to be regarded as living “in fuel poverty” if (s)he is a member of a household living on a lower income in a home, which cannot be kept warm at reasonable cost (UK Government […]

Laura Watts The Orkney Islands, off the north coast of Scotland, are leading the creation of a new global renewable energy industry. The European Marine Energy Centre, the world’s first grid-connected test site for wave and tide energy, has been up and running for ten years. The islands are also the site for the world’s […]

Annabel Pinker Drawing on fieldwork on the material politics of wind energy in Scotland, this paper considers how ‘expert’ figures that have burgeoned around the field of renewable energy make themselves both as professional and moral persons. How do those variously positioned as wind energy ‘experts’ at different scales – including engineers, energy consultants, community […]

Marianna Betti In Turkana, Northern Kenya, the novelty of hydrocarbon operations initiated by oil company Tullow in collaboration with the Kenyan government in 2012 is triggering both hopes and anxieties among local population. In an isolated and marginalized region, where basic infrastructures are lacking, where basic human needs are not taken care of and where […]

Amy Penfield This paper explores how the Sanema of Venezuelan Amazonia experience the petroleum economy through their everyday handling of large quantities of highly subsidised petrol (gasoline), which has become a remarkably ubiquitous substance in social and political life. The paper critiques the theory of the so-called ‘resource curse’ by exploring local-level experiences with petrol, […]