Imagining sustainable energy and mobility transitions: valence, temporality, and radicalism in 38 visions of a low-carbon future
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Published version
Date
2020-08
Authors
Sovacool, Benjamin K.
Bergman, Noam
Hopkins, Debbie
Jenkins, Kirsten Eh
Hielscher, Sabine
Goldthau, Andreas
Brossmann, Brent
Version
Published version
OA Version
Citation
B.K. Sovacool, N. Bergman, D. Hopkins, K.E. Jenkins, S. Hielscher, A. Goldthau, B. Brossmann. 2020. "Imagining sustainable energy and mobility transitions: Valence, temporality, and radicalism in 38 visions of a low-carbon future." Social Studies of Science, Volume 50, Issue 4, pp.642-679. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312720915283
Abstract
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.
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© The Author(s) 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions