Aukes, Ewert (Enschede (NL) University of Twente, Enschede)
Societal Futures Without Renewable Technologies? Rejecting or Exiting from Transitions to Renewables
Authors: Ewert Aukes, Peter Stegmaier
Keywords: Renewable Technologies, Rejection, Discontinuation, Sustainability
Abstract:
The uptake and impact of renewable transition policies depends on whether societal actors engage in their implementation and how undesirable policies and technologies can be discontinued. Emergence and implementation of novel socio-technical systems is at the heart of many transition and innovation studies. However, observations of societal actors rejecting the resulting changes or even underlying interpretive frameworks of anthropogenic climate change or shifting societal responsibilities are beginning to pile up. At the same time, studies on discontinuation look at the exit, ban, decline of old, ecologically often unsustainable socio-technical systems. Thus, rejection and discontinuation moves surrounding unstable socio-technical regimes, thereby thwarting or slowing down transitions, cannot be overlooked and deserve deeper academic engagement.
Abstaining from sustainable transitions can take many forms: Homeowners do not switch to renewable energies, car owners reject e-mobility, citizens vote for parties downplaying lifestyle restrictions, farmers do not want to adapt intensive farming practices, etc. It seems that the willingness to change is not as widespread across societies as some portray it to be, either because people don’t want to change, they can’t imagine it, don’t consider change necessary, or don’t accept the underlying arguments for such changes as true. These are all empirical questions this special session addresses.
Research, sustainability-oriented politics and activism have focused too much on change on a structural, meso-systemic level, but not on people who do not change their actions and life situations that lead people to abstain from change. As we assume change to be the normal state of societies, stasis becomes all the more intriguing. This includes the creation of static, conserving counter-images; futures are promised that do not require abandoning what is cherished; fake news are spread and horror scenarios of sustainability development are projected. Other people cannot afford to change or fear job losses, and justifiably so. The field is wide and diverse. And an understanding of these complexities is fundamental to addressing them. Resistance to new technology, organisational structures, lifestyles, business models or policies that bring about social change is nothing new (steam engines, computers, the internet and many more). We should not forget to examine current phenomena for historical lines of scepticism towards the new and change.
In this track, we want to invite observations and studies that substantiate attitudes of refusal, strategies of resistance and practices of opting out of transitions. The track invites presentations of full or early-stage research papers leading to a concluding debate.