ABSTRACT

Energy research and energy-related policy making are informed by terms, ideas and stories that reproduce certain ways of thinking about problems and responses. Energy Fables highlights threads and lines of reasoning that run through the energy landscape. In elaborating on the implications of the observation, the last fable in the collection takes issue with the view that the policies that matter for energy or transport are those that are explicitly or primarily concerned with energy or with transport. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. The book shows how energy is conceptualised as something that is abstracted from what people do, and from the histories, cultures and contexts in which energy demand is constituted. It explores a series of linked ideas about the character of provision and consumption. The book focuses on specific injunctions: ‘first pick the low hanging fruit’, ‘keep the lights on’ and ‘promote smart homes’.