Sociotechnical Imaginaries and National Energy Policies

• Published in: Science as culture Vol. 22; no. 2; pp. 189 - 196
• Main Authors: Jasanoff, Sheila, Kim, Sang-Hyun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 01.06.2013
• Subjects: Alternative technology; Culture; Energy planning; Energy Policy; Energy transition; Governance; Imaginaries; Nuclear energy; Science; Social infrastructure; South Korea; Technology; U.S.A; United States
• ISSN: 0950-5431; 1470-1189
• DOI: 10.1080/09505431.2013.786990

Slowly, reluctantly, with almost audible screeches of resistance, the political machinery of the industrial world is gearing up to address the energy crises of the new millennium. The challenge is to bring fuel that ancient, low-tech, yet most civilizing of human inventions within the reach of high-tech projects that seek to mitigate the threat of climate change while meeting the demand for global economic growth and development. In place of the dirty, extractive, non-renewable, fossil fuel systems that currently power much of the world, the energy scenarios of the future are homing in on alternatives that promise to be clean, efficient, and superabundant. Energy transitions of such proportions do not simply involve swapping one resource for another: clean atoms for polluting coal or renewable wind for exhaustible oil. New energy futures will need to reconfigure the physical deep structures of civilization grids and pipelines, seashores and pastoral landscapes, and suburbs and cities that were shaped by the energy choices of the past. Equally, we argue here, radical changes in the fuel supply are likely to transform social infrastructures, changing established patterns of life and work and allocating benefits and burdens differently from before. Accordingly analysts should pay greater attention to the social dimensions of energy transitions, complementing more conventional analyses of economic and engineering issues. Reprinted by permission of Carfax Publishing, Taylor & Francis Ltd.