Energizing the World: STS and Anthropology Towards the Social Studies of New Energies (EW) is funded by Poland’s National Science Centre grant No. 2017/25/B/HS6/00880 and led by Professor UAM Aleksandra Lis-Plesińska.
Energizing the World aims to propose a theoretical and methodological approach to capture and explore the political and social nature of alternative ways of power generation in electricity and transportation systems. It focuses on the bottom-up and state-led ways of organizing electricity generation, consumption and electrification in transport. The project addresses the following questions: (1) How are new infrastructures for electricity production and consumption organized by actors differently positioned in relation to the state and markets? (2) What new practices of energy consumption, production and mobility emerge locally? (3) What are the system dynamics of the socio-techncial transition of energy and transport systems?
The study applies a mixed-methods approach, utilizing ethnographic methods, in-depth interviews, focused-group interviews and document analysis, and is theoretically and methodologically grounded in anthropology, social studies of science and technology (STS), socio-technical transition studies and political economy. Three cases have been examined: (1) development of prosumerism in Poland; (2) development of solar energy in Mendoza, Argentina; (3) electric mobility development in Poland.
The project research team includes: Prof. Aleksandra Lis-Plesińska (PI), Dr. Rafał Szymanowski, Dr. Agata Hummel, Victor Vargas, Maja Zwiślak and Witold Krzemiński.
