Energy Lives! Infrastructural Citizenship in Nordic Energy Transitions

Research Project, 2024 – 2028

The world urgently needs to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.Nordic countries are committed to green transitions, largely focusing on renewable energy and electrification.Examining past transitions can guide the Nordic countries in creating environmentally and socially just energy systems.
The world urgently needs to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Nordic countries are committed to green transitions, largely focusing on renewable energy and electrification. Examining past transitions can guide the Nordic countries in creating environmentally and socially just energy systems. "Energy Lives!" explores the intertwined history of energy and people in the Nordic region, aiming to understand how communities form around energy transitions and influence them over time. We use the concept of infrastructural citizenship to investigate how people, politics, and infrastructures contribute to energy transitions through agency, appropriation, and resistance. The part of the project lead by Chalmers University of Technology focuses on major energy infrastructures, such as oil refineries, in local communities. For some people, an oil refinery in the neighborhood meant improved life quality but for some others, increased challenges. By the microhistorical approach to energy infrastructure and local communities, this subproject will create finergrained understanding of the grassroot-level impact of energy transformation usually overshadowed by the national and global level narratives. Together with the other Nordic work packages, "Energy Lives!" generates insights into how democratic engagement has shaped the legitimacy and efficiency of energy transitions, offering crucial perspectives for current political debates on just green transitions.