In the context of large-scale energy transitions, current approaches to energy policy have become too narrowly constrained around problems of electrons, fuel, and carbon, the technologies that provide them, and the cost of those technologies. Energy systems are deeply enmeshed in broad patterns of social, economic, and political life and organization, and significant changes to energy systems increasingly are accompanied by social, economic, and political shifts. Energy policy is therefore, in practice, a problem of socio-energy system design. In this article, we offer a definition of socio-energy systems, reconceptualize key questions in energy policy in terms of socio-energy systems change, analyze three case studies of energy policy development as problems of socio-energy systems design, and develop recommendations for rethinking energy policy and governance in the context of socio-energy systems transitions.

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Using a collaborative critical personal narrative methodology grounded in intersectionality, we interrogated tensions in identifying ourselves as tempered radicals and scholar-activists who were involved in a local universitycommunity activist organization. We assert the value of informal activist spaces within the university and identify issues related to the lack of recognition of scholaractivism as legitimate scholarship, including the paradox of universities as colonizing and liberatory spaces for community engagement and activism. Our themes highlight how mentorship affects scholar-activism and how activism transforms and disrupts the neoliberal university. Yet, activism is rendered invisible, making homeplaces for scholar-activism critical for students, faculty, staff, and the community to address structural inequalities within and outside of the university. We conclude with recommendations to improve mentorship for scholar-activists, to revise tenure and promotion policies to include scholar-activism, and to recognize spaces within the academy that honor scholar-activism as a critical form of praxis informed by intersectionality. We employed a collaborative critical personal narrative methodology to interrogate the structural and systematic inequalities we experience as scholar-activists (Collins & Bilge, 2016; Crenshaw, 1989; Moraga & Anzaldúa, 1981). Using intersectionality, we locate spaces and moments where power dynamics around class, race, and gender are necessary to transform higher

Energy transitions are thoroughly social affairs. Despite this fact, energy policy rarely incorporates the social dimensions of energy systems change in an intentional, explicit, and broad fashion. Reviewing extensive recent research, we introduce the concept of social planning for energy transitions as an innovative framing for energy policy that can accompany technical and economic analyses and decisionmaking, especially in the current context of flux and uncertainty in the energy sector. We define social planning as understanding and preparing for the societal outcomes of energy transitions, as well as developing strategies to incorporate these considerations into energy policy. We review five areas of capacity-building for social planning in energy transitions: mapping socio-energy relationships, envisioning socio-energy futures, designing just socio-energy systems, building socio-energy partnerships, and governing socioenergy transitions.

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