ABSTRACT

In view of the difficulties experienced today in reconfiguring urban infrastructures, this chapter explores historical examples of (attempted) adaptations of large technical systems (LTS) involving unconventional socio-technical solutions. As a case study, the chapter investigates a number of alternative technologies from the field of waste-to-energy applied in Berlin, focusing on the interwar period. The empirical analysis is based primarily on a systematic survey of relevant professional journals on energy and wastewater management published in Germany from 1920 to the present. The chapter frames the study in terms of three strands of scholarly debate: on socio-technical transitions, path dependency and creation and urban infrastructures in transition. It describes the rise, fall and resurrection of selected waste-to-energy technologies, setting the Berlin case in the broader context of national technology policy. The chapter uses the history of waste-to-energy technologies in Berlin to question some of the assumptions underpinning this notion of regime shift by exploring processes of emergence, disappearance and re-emergence.