Description: The urban energy transition represents a transformation of such magnitude that it will require a re-examination of the fundamental relationship between societies and energy resources. The potential for cities to deliver sustainable energy for their citizens requires context-specific action. One-size-fits-all approaches - which assume homogeneity across cities and economies of scale in the extension of electricity networks - have largely failed to deliver sustainable energy for all. This challenge is existential, questioning the fundamental ways in which contemporary life is organized around energy. This innovative volume argues that the urban energy transition depends on specific urban trajectories and heterogeneous urban energy landscapes, reflecting both strategic projects of urbanization and people's dwelling practices. Looking at in-depth case studies of urban energy landscapes in four major cities, it calls for citizens' active engagement with experimentation in everyday life. The book will have wide interdisciplinary appeal to researchers in energy, urban and environmental studies.
Brief description: Vanesa Castán Broto is an interdisciplinary researcher studying climate change governance and urban transitions. In 2016, she was awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize for contributions to geography. In 2013, her project on Participatory Planning for Climate Change in Mozambique was recognized as a 'Lighthouse Activity for the Urban Poor' by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Castán Broto's recent books include An Urban Politics of Climate Change (with G. Edwards and H. Bulkeley, 2014) and Urban Sustainability Transitions (with N. Frantzeskaki, L. Coenen and D. Loorbach, 2017). Vanesa was a lead chapter author for UN-Habitat's World Cities Report 2016.
Review Quotes: 'In this remarkable book of conceptual rigor, empirical breadth and methodological creativity, Castán Broto brings to life the situated practices and contextualized histories which - she convincingly argues - are so critical to understanding how urban energy transitions really happen.' Timothy Moss, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin