ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book analyses the apparent tensions between modernity and sustainability in energy transitions at different scales in Southeast Asia, with a specific focuses on Thailand and Laos. It reviews the different bodies of social science literature which attempt to conceptualise the relations between energy, modernity and sustainability: socio-technical transitions, Ecological Modernisation Theory, energy practices, and political ecology. The book uses different case studies to understand the relations between energy-modernity and sustainability at different scales. It analyses the processes and discourses of regional integration in Southeast Asia, with a focus on ASEAN and the GMS project. It demonstrates the country-level case studies of energy transitions and state-led discourses of modernity in Thailand and Laos. This was followed by in-depth local case studies of the respective villages' energy trajectories, which involved not only transitions to different energy production systems and end-use energy technologies.
