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Imagining sustainable energy and mobility transitions: valence, temporality, and radicalism in 38 visions of a low-carbon future

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-12, 09:22 authored by Benjamin SovacoolBenjamin Sovacool, Noam BergmanNoam Bergman, Debbie Hopkins, Kirsten E H Jenkins, Sabine Hielscher, Andres Goldthau, Brent Brossman
Based on an extensive synthesis of semi-structured interviews, media content analysis, and reviews, this article conducts a qualitative meta-analysis of more than 560 sources of evidence to identify 38 visions associated with seven different low-carbon innovations – automated mobility, electric vehicles, smart meters, nuclear power, shale gas, hydrogen, and the fossil fuel divestment movement – playing a key role in current deliberations about mobility or low-carbon energy supply and use. From this material, it analyzes such visions based on rhetorical features such as common problems and functions, storylines, discursive struggles, and rhetorical effectiveness. It also analyzes visions based on typologies or degrees of valence (utopian vs. dystopian), temporality (proximal vs. distant), and radicalism (incremental vs. transformative). The article is motivated by the premise that tackling climate change via low-carbon energy systems (and practices) is one of the most significant challenges of the twenty-first century, and that effective decarbonization will require not only new energy technologies, but also new ways of understanding language, visions, and discursive politics surrounding emerging innovations and transitions.

Funding

Research Centre on Innovation and Energy Demand; G1020; RCUK-RESEARCH COUNCILS UK; EP/K011790/1

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Social Studies of Science

ISSN

0306-3127

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Page range

1-38

Department affiliated with

  • SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2020-02-18

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2020-05-13

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2020-02-17

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