“Ethics of Energy?” Presentation

Renewable Futures in the Age of Austerity: Extractive Economies and Neo-colonialism in Central Greece 

Daniel Knight Entering a sixth year of fiscal crisis, the Greek government, supported by the European Union, advocates renewable energy generation and export as a way to repay national debt, decrease deficit and secure the future of the Greek state. This paper explores the impact of multinational investment in photovoltaic (solar) parks on the Plain […]

Ethical Hesitation of the Patriotic Hydroelectric Station

Munkh-Erdene Gantulga The paper aims to study the debate of an ethical justification between locals and government officials about the project of hydroelectric station on Eg River in Bulgan Province, Mongolia. Government of Mongolia demanded to start the building of the hydroelectric station on the Eg River near the border of the Russian Federation and […]

Putting Bacteria to Work: The Social Constructions of Ethical Energy within Synthetic Biology

Carmen McLeod and Brigitte Nerlich The UK government has made significant investment into so-called ‘fourth-generation’ biofuel technologies. These biofuels are based on engineering the metabolic pathways of microorganisms in order to create chemicals compatible with existing infrastructure. Bacteria play an important role in what is promoted as potentially a new ‘biological’ industrial revolution, which could […]

Exploring Samburu Pastoralists’ Changing ‘Geomorphological’, ‘Ecological’ and Ethical Worlds

James Drew Africa’s largest wind-farm is under construction in northern Kenya. Many pastoralists, including Samburu have grazed livestock in this landscape for generations. This paper explores the history of how one such Samburu community’s lives, including ethical perceptions and identities, are entwined with ways of knowing landscape. Lkirriti (the way of the sheep) and nkanyit […]

On and Off: Life and Energy Supply in a New Mining Town in Zambia

Rita Kesselring While the West discusses the ethics of energy production, many developing countries grapple predominantly with the ethics of energy distribution. In the new and booming mining town Solwezi, North-Western Province in Zambia, it becomes particularly evident how energy as an infrastructure differentiates among its inhabitants. Most energy in the Southern African country is […]

Artisanal Energy? The Ethics of Charcoal Prosumption in Madagascar 

Andrew Walsh Charcoal producers are among the most frequently maligned entrepreneurs in Madagascar, often singled out in conservation reports and targeted in conservation measures as enemies of the island’s threatened forests and ecosystems. And yet charcoal remains the island’s dominant cooking fuel, and, thus, primary energy commodity. In recent years, international organizations and Malagasy state […]

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