Description: This is a novel and far reaching polyrhythmic theorisation of our collective living with energy in its many natural and technological forms. It provides a distinctive understanding of the urgent challenges of transforming future energy systems into more just and lower carbon configurations.
Brief description: Gordon Walker is Professor at the Lancaster Environment Centre and until recently Co-Director of the DEMAND (Dynamics of Energy, Mobility and Demand) Centre. He has a profile of research on the social and spatial dimensions of environment, energy and sustainability issues. This includes work on environmental and energy justice; social practice, sociotechnical transitions and energy demand; community engagement with renewable energy technologies. Books include sole-authored 'Environmental Justice: concepts, evidence and politics' (2012); the co-authored 'Energy and Society: a critical perspective' (2018); and co-edited 'Routledge Handbook of Environmental Justice' (2017) and 'Demanding Energy: Space, Time and Change' (2018).
Review Quotes:
"Walker offers readers his view (extending Lefebvre's theory of rhythmanalysis) that the challenge of a low carbon future can be framed in terms of mastering the interactions between different forms of energy and the various rhythms that define people's lives, from natural circadian rhythms to the omnipresent technological rhythms of 21st-century life. Given this context, the challenges of a low carbon future can be alternatively considered by reimagining these rhythms and creating new rhythms that better position humans for a sustainable future. . . . Framing the current energy challenges in terms of rhythms is an interesting and novel idea that may appeal to individuals as they consider how to contribute to the coming and inevitable energy transition. Recommended." --Choice
"Energy and Rhythm represents a groundbreaking rethinking of the relationship between energy and daily life. Walker presents a highly readable and truly original account of how energy systems have come to be the way they are and what it will take to transform them for a low carbon future. I highly recommend." --Conor Harrison, assistant professor of geography, University of South Carolina "Rhythm and Energy in Society provides an urgently needed account of how and why it is necessary to bring energy and time together to tackle climate change and achieve low carbon futures. Walker offers an intellectually rigorous and innovative framework for how a carbon-dependent existence can and should be understood as dynamic rhythms in transition. This excellent book is essential reading for all scholars concerned with climate, energy and social change." --Cecily Maller, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University, Melbourne