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Published November 16, 2021 | Version v1
Journal article Open

Energy governance as a commons: Engineering alternative socio-technical configurations

  • 1. Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance, Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), Akadeemia tee 3, 12618 Tallinn, Estonia
  • 2. School of Energy Systems, Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology, Yliopistonkatu 34, 53850 Lappeenranta, Finland
  • 3. Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University of Bristol, Woodland Road, Clifton BS8 1UB, Bristol, United Kingdom
  • 4. Department of Human Geography, Lund University, Geocentrum I, Sölvegatan 10, 223 62 Lund, Sweden
  • 5. School of Computing, University of Leeds, Woodhouse LS2 9JT, Leeds, United Kingdom

Description

Transitioning into a sustainable energy system is becoming ever more pressing as the reality of an anthropogenic ecological crisis becomes difficult to ignore. Due to the complexity of the matter, proposed solutions often address the symptoms of the current socioeconomic configuration rather than its core. To conceptualise possible future energy systems, this Perspective focuses on the disconnect between science and technology and engineering studies. On the one hand, this disconnect leads to social science research that passively critiques rather than contributes to tackling societal issues in practice. On the other, it produces technical work limited by the incumbent conceptualisations of economic activity and organisational configurations around production without capturing the broader social and political dynamics. We thus propose a schema for bridging this divide that uses the “commons” as an umbrella concept. We apply this framework on the hardware aspect of a conceptual energy system, which builds on networked microgrids powered by open-source, lower cost, adaptable, socially responsible and sustainable technology. This Perspective is a call to engineers and social scientists alike to form genuine transdisciplinary collaborations for developing radical alternatives to the energy conundrum.

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Additional details

Funding

Building the Energy Internet as a large-scale IoT-based cyber-physical system that manages the energy inventory of distribution grids as discretized packets via machine-type communications (EnergyNet) 321265
Research Council of Finland
Building the Energy Internet as a large-scale IoT-based cyber-physical system that manages the energy inventory of distribution grids as discretized packets via machine-type communications (EnergyNet) 328869
Research Council of Finland
COSMOLOCALISM – Design Global, Manufacture Local: Assessing the Practices, Innovation, and Sustainability Potential of an Emerging Mode of Production 802512
European Commission