Introduction

Energy democracy: A digital future?

“…Energy democratic goals include political activism targeting environmental pollution, resistance to the concentration of socio-economic power held by fossil fuel companies, and social emancipation [19][20][21][22][23][24]. The theory and practice of energy democracy have been heavily influenced by sociotechnical transitions in energy systems towards decarbonization and decentralization [16].…”

Powering racial capitalism: Electricity, rate-making, and the uneven energy geographies of Atlanta

“…The ways in which on-going processes of racialization figure into the political economy of energy have received less attention (cf. Baker and Phillips, 2019; Fairchild and Weinrub, 2017; Harrison, 2016; Lennon, 2017; 2020; McDonald, 2009). Just as Robinson (2000) argued capitalism required racialized logics to organize labor from the beginning as the economic system evolved out of European feudal society, so too energy geographies have always been racialized.…”

“…Electricity as it circulates within and powers racial capitalism remains understudied with important exceptions that analyze the discriminatory history of electrification and access to regular and affordable electricity service in Black, Indigenous, and other marginalized, especially rural, communities (see Acosta García and Farrell, 2019; Harrison, 2016; McDonald, 2009; Needham, 2014). A growing body of energy justice literature also considers racial disparities in utility disconnections and access to renewable energy and energy efficiency (see Fairchild and Weinrub, 2017; Franklin et al., 2017; Reames, 2016; Lewis et al., 2020). Lennon (2017) situates these disparities historically in investigating the transatlantic slave trade as an energy system.…”

A climate for change? The impacts of climate change on energy politics

“…In this sense climate change gets invoked as catastrophic master discourse for 'post-political reasons' (Swyngedouw 2010) to bypass conflict and opposition to controversial planning decisions and technology such as fracking, nuclear and geo-engineering. The urgency of addressing climate change is also mobilized to side-line more radical and disruptive calls for reform of existing systems of energy production and consumption including their democratization (Fairchild and Weinrub 2017), reductions in energy demand through conservation, and the need for transitions to address issues of social justice (Swilling and Annecke 2012) on the grounds that the urgency necessitates working with existing structures and institutions.…”