Integrating social-ecological dynamics and resilience into energy systems research

Abstract

The ecological impact of energy production and consumption is often relegated in analytical accounts of the evolution of energy systems, where production and consumption patterns are often analysed as the interaction of social, economic and technological factors. Ecological and socialecological dynamics are, we argue, critical in the context of imperatives for access to modern energy services that are inadequate for significant sections of the world's population. The ecological impacts of energy use are often analysed as a set of externalities, many of which are uncertain or unquantifiable, particularly if they stem from earth system change such as anthropogenic climate change. Here we outline the benefits from analysing energy systems as social-ecological systems. We review the extensive literature from ecology and resilience theories, and compare the analytical domains, major findings and emphasis of social-ecological systems with socio-technical transition research. We illustrate these differences with the example of the multi-scale impacts of biofuel expansion. We show that social-ecological systems research combines analysis of interactions with ecological systems and power relations between actors in energy systems, and has the potential to do so across production, distribution and consumption domains whilst illustrating the dynamics of such energy systems, identifying potential trade-offs and regime shifts.

What drives the development of community energy in Europe? The case of wind power cooperatives

“…Other explanations include (bio-) physical conditions, and the actors' ability to act strategically to changes in their environment. Finally, it has recently been argued that it is meaningful to investigate how these factors interact in a systemic fashion rather than studying them in isolation [1,15,16]. The so-called "SocialEcological System" Framework may be helpful in this task.…”

“…In a recent article, Hodbod and Adger [15] argue for framing energy systems as socialecological systems. In this perspective, we build the conceptual framework of this paper using insights from the Social-Ecological System (SES) Framework developed by Elinor Ostrom and her collaborators [17].…”

Resilience Thinking as an Interdisciplinary Guiding Principle for Energy System Transitions

“…Impacts of climate change, consumption of scare resources and other non-linear effects to social-ecological systems can be only partly quantified [24,26]. With growing distance to the market, monetization of externalities becomes uncertain to an extent that it is not included in external cost quantifications [27,28].…”

Polycentric Governance Approaches for a Low-Carbon Transition: The Roles of Community-Based Energy Initiatives in Enhancing the Resilience of Future Energy Systems

“…Recent studies argue for framing energy systems as SESs (Hodbod and Adger 2014;Bauwens et al 2016). Production, distribution and consumption activities within energy systems involve interactions between, on the one hand, ecological processes and technological artefacts and, on the other, social practices and systems of institutional rules.…”