Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book proposes the conceptual framework and approaches to policy and practice, and governance more broadly that are intended to facilitate a more political and democratic approach to the sustainable energy access problem. It demonstrates the empirical analysis that neither the two-dimensional economics-engineering framing that dominates the academic literature on energy access in Sub-Saharan Africa nor the hardware financing-private sector entrepreneurship framings that dominate policy can explain examples of transformative change in low carbon energy technology adoption in developing countries. Therefore, solutions based on these underdetermined framings are unlikely to meet the sustainable energy access needs of developing countries or the poor people therein. The book presents the idea of 'socio-technical innovation systems', as opposed to simply 'innovation systems', allowing for the adoption of what we argue are the most promising strands of both the Innovation Studies and Socio-Technical Transitions literatures.