Introduction

This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part explores the extent to which communities can become active agents of transitions to sustainability using a concrete example, Brixton Energy, which shows how energy transitions embed in the community. It focuses on the question of energy demand not as behavior change, but rather as a construct which requires active governance. The part aims to study of energy and place making in informal settlements in South Africa constitutes a challenge to conventional understanding of how energy should be provided to facilitate energy access. It explains how the provision of energy services coevolves with the configuration of informal settlements. The part explores the provision of energy in Accra, Ghana, the question of energy access fosters new understandings of how infrastructure and service provision are implicated in localized forms of incremental urbanism.