ROLES
Completed December 2023: ROLES aims to identify how we can accelerate the decarbonisation of energy systems by digitalising energy infrastructure, in ways that create societal benefits.
Main content
Despite citizen aspirations to decarbonise society, actions that decarbonise in just ways face structural limits. Nascent research frames the failure to accelerate deep decarbonisation as a crisis of accountability. Lack of accountability in digitalising energy infrastructure can exacerbate social exclusion and risks inequitable extraction and use of data. ROLES develops strategies for responsive organising of citizen agency to tackle such accountability crises through customisable pathways in city-regions. It examines digitalisation of energy infrastructure in mid-sized (population 100,000-300,000) European city-regions.
Phase I of III identifies pro-poor and climate-friendly pathways to digitalise energy infrastructure for electric mobility hubs in Bergen, solar energy neighbourhoods in Brighton, and smart energy monitoring in Trento. Using multi-stakeholder interviews and small-scale surveys with government, business, civil society, and marginalised groups, the project co-produces structured, in-depth knowledge about digitalisation needs and initiatives in each city-region. This includes the range of policy mixes and citizens' coping strategies and modes of engagement.
Phase II identifies constraining and enabling conditions for rapid diffusion of digitalisation along these pathways. It involves stakeholders in deliberations at public events to develop pathways to accelerate deep decarbonisation through digitalisation. Analysis of power relationships identifies political economic dynamics for each pathway. Research outputs discuss dynamics of responsive organising in and across the cases.
Phase III delivers a toolkit on responsive organising to accelerate the digitalisation of energy infrastructure for deep decarbonisation in mid-sized European city-regions. Academic outputs will discuss dynamics of responsive organising in and across the cases.
Outcomes
Knowledge co-produced with multi-stakeholders on policy mixes, modes of citizen engagement and copingstrategies to identify DDD pathways in three case studies.
Power cube analysis of DDD pathways in three cases with public deliberation and insights on institutionalenablements, constraints and power dynamics of socially just energy digitalisation.
Handbook co-produced with multi-stakeholders with a toolkit to identify how to accelerate diffusion of digitalisation ofenergy systems in European city-regions.
Theoretical and case-specific insights on accelerating diffusion pathways to digitalise for deep decarbonisation of energysystems in European city-regions.
Work packages
WP 1: Consortium Coordination
WP 2: Bergen: Electric Mobility Hubs
WP 3: Brighton: Solar Energy Neighbourhoods
WP 4: Trento: Smart Energy Monitoring
WP 5: Dissemination Coordination
Publications
Haarstad, H., Sareen, S., Kandt, J., Coenen, L., Cook, M. (2022) Beyond automobility? Lock-in of past failures in low-carbon urban mobility innovations. Energy Policy, 166, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2022.113002
Krupnik, S., Wagner, A., Vincent, O., Rudek, T. J., Wade, R., Mišík, M., Akerboom, S., Foulds, C., Smith Stegen, K., Adem, Ç., Batel, S., Rabitz, F., Certomà, C., Chodkowska-Miszczuk, J., Denac, M., Dokupilová, D., Leiren, M. D., Ignatieva, M. F., Gabaldón-Estevan, D., … von Wirth, T. (2022) Beyond Technology: A research agenda for Social Sciences and Humanities Research on renewable energy in Europe. Energy Research & Social Science, 89, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2022.102536
Remme, D., Sareen, S. & Haarstad, H. (2022) Who benefits from sustainable mobility transitions? Social inclusion, populist resistance and elite capture in Bergen, Norway. Journal of Transport Geography, 105, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2022.103475
Sareen, S., Albert-Seifried, V., Aelenei, L., Reda, F., Etminan, G., Andreucci, M., Kuzmic, M., Maas, N., Seco, O., Civiero, P., Gohari, S., Hukkalainen, M., Neumann, H. (2022) Ten questions concerning positive energy districts. Building and Environment, 216, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2022.109017
Sareen, S., Wågsæther, K. (2022) New municipalism and the governance of urban transitions to sustainability. Urban Studies, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980221114968
Sareen, S. (2021) Digitalisation and social inclusion in multi-scalar smart energy transitions. Energy Research & Social Science, 81, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2021.102251
Sareen, S., Nielsen, K., Oskarsson, P. & Remme, D. (2021) The pandemic as a rupture that follows rules: Comparing governance responses in India, USA, Sweden and Norway. Frontiers in Human Dynamics, 3, DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fhumd.2021.636422
Sareen, S., Remme, D., Wågsæther, K., & Haarstad, H. (2021). A matter of time: Explicating temporality in science and technology studies and Bergen’s car-free zone development. Energy Research & Social Science, 78, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2021.102128
Sareen, S., Remme, D., Haarstad, H. (2021) E-scooter regulation: The micro-politics of market-making for micro-mobility in Bergen. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 40, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2021.10.009
