[Themaintainers] [Reminder] Call for Abstracts – Taking ‘care’ of energy infrastructures (STS conference, Graz 4-6 May) – deadline 20 January 2020.

[Tristan Loloum]

Dear colleagues,



For those who “care” for energy infrastructures (or work with people who
do), please consider sharing or contributing to our session at the STS
Conference in Graz
<https://sts-conference.isds.tugraz.at/event/10/page/164-c-towards-low-carbon-energy-systems>
(Austria), 4-6 May. Description below.



The abstract needs to be submitted using the online form
<https://sts-conference.isds.tugraz.at/event/11/abstracts/>. It should not
exceed 500 words, max. 5 keywords. Choose the number of the session in
which your presentation should be included (Thematic field “*Towards
Low-Carbon Energy Systems*”; session “*C.7* *Taking care of energy
infrastructures*”).



Submission deadline for abstracts is January 20, 2020.





All best,

Tristan, Moritz & Alain



*C.7 Taking care of energy infrastructures*

*Loloum, Tristan, Fürst, Moritz, Bovet, Alain (Université de Lausanne)*



The energy transition is often framed in terms of a technological challenge
and an engineering problem, involving innovative design, efficient
planning, and effective optimization of energy infrastructures and the
built environment. This innovation-centric view tends to neglect the fact
that ‘change’ often occurs once energy systems are already in place,
through incremental adaptations, additions and enhancements. The focus on
engineers, planners and designers also puts aside the many actors in charge
of operating and maintaining such systems on a daily basis: grid operators,
HVAC technicians, facility managers, installers, caretakers, etc.



Drawing on authors like Maria Puig de la Bellacasa (2017), Dona Haraway
(2016) and Bruno Latour (2013), we argue that fixing ‘things’ and taking
care of energy infrastructure implies more than maintaining their technical
functioning: it means caring for the people who use them and their
environments, and it requires active engagement, social skills and a sense
of concern towards associations between humans and non-humans. The session
therefore extends on current debates in science and technology studies and
energy social science that (I) observe how classical dichotomies (e.g.
between planning and operation, professionals and users, engineers and
technicians, people and machines) are maintained, and sometimes contested
and reconfigured; (II) investigate energy infrastructure and energy
transition at the level of everyday lay and professional care-taking
activities, i.e. considering energy practices as situated and culturally
embedded realities rather than in terms of dominant paradigms of
technological innovation and economic rationality.

This panel session invites contributors from all disciplinary horizons,
looking at energy infrastructure “from below and within”, focusing on
operation routines, control rooms, repair and maintenance, incremental
improvements, “middle actors” (technicians, installers, controllers,
caretakers, facility managers), disruption, practices of daily-use and
socio-technical encounters. We particularly encourage prospective
participants to emphasize the richness of empirical material in their
presentations, exhibit visual and/or audio data, or even material objects
that can form a basis for a fruitful discussion. If appropriate conditions
are in place, the session will be introduced or followed up by a quick tour
of the conference venue’s infrastructural backstage and a discussion with
one of the building’s facility managers in order to get a concrete grasp of
what energy infrastructure is, and what taking care of it actually entails.



KEYWORDS: energy infrastructure, care, operation, repair & maintenance,
energy practices


----

Tristan LOLOUM, PhD
*SNF senior researcher*
*Guest lecturer*

UNIL | Université de Lausanne
Institut de géographie et durabilité
Bâtiment Géopolis
Bureau 3523
CH-1015 Lausanne

Tél. 021/692 35 59
www.unil.ch/igd


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