Complex Systems and Social Practices in Energy Transitions

This book offers an interdisciplinary discussion of the fundamental issues concerning policies for sustainable transition to renewable energies from the perspectives of sociologists, physicists, engineers, economists, anthropologists, biologists, ecologists and policy analysts. Adopting a combined approach, these are analysed taking both complex systems and social practice theories into consideration to provide deeper insights into the evolution of energy systems.

The book then draws a series of important conclusions and makes recommendations for the research community and policy makers involved in the design and implementation of policies for sustainable energy transitions.

Contenu

The Social Construction of Complex Systems.- Complexification in the Energiewende.- Present Energy Metabolism and the Future of Renewables.- Hierarchies, Power and the Problem of Governing Complex Systems.- Community-based Initiatives to Enhance the Sustainability of Energy Systems.- Convergence of Biophysical and Socioeconomic Models of Resource Systems in the Long Term Based on a Complex Systems Approach.- Energy Conservation Policies in the Light of the Energetics of Evolution.- Ontological Fallacies Linked to Energy, Time and Information.- Energy, Time and Social Practice: From Abstractions to Dynamic Processes.- How Flexible are Households in their Energy Consumption? An Analysis of the Rhythm of Everyday Life and its Consequences for Peak Shaving.- Two Political Views on Energy: The Mechanic and Experimental Regimes of Bodies.- Radical Transitions from Fossil Fuel to Renewables: A Change of Posture.- Decomposing Energy Grids: Energy and Power Between Corporate Actors and FinalUsers.- Complex Adaptive Systems and Energy-saving Social Practices.- Grid Dependencies in the Time of Renewables.