ABSTRACT

In this introductory chapter, I expand on the definition of energy as an inherently social phenomenon and try to rethink the notion of energy impacts beyond the physical and material operation of energy developments and technologies. Instead, energy projects are analysed here as sites of new sociotechnical relations that implicate a broad set of materialities and temporalities in the operation of extractive industries and renewable technologies. I go beyond the local environments and show how energy impacts and resistance that they generate point to the various scales at which energy is made significant for democracy, justice and equality. By reviewing the relevant literature and building on the analysis in the current volume, I argue that contestation of energy is transformative and creates new imaginaries of energy futures and energy democracy.