Practical Engagements and the Social-Spatial Dimensions of the Post-Petroleum Future

The unfolding energy transition, necessitated by international decarbonization agreements and other social and ecological demands, raises numerous questions about the roles cities, regions, communes, local cooperatives and other geographical-political-social entities will play. How will communities be positioned in shaping the future?  Will the most important energy developments during the transition be at the level of sub-national regions and local communities?  Or are transnational regional efforts equally well positioned to make a difference?  How do social scale and corresponding forms of relations, association and organization align with particular ways of envisioning the future?

The aim of this symposium is to examine the social dimensioning of the energy transition with a special but not exclusive consideration of the case of introducing hydrogen and fuel cells into the energy arena. The intersecting range of presentations will explore the relationship between the social scale of future visions and the social scale of actual unfolding of techno-social development.  In the case of hydrogen, discussions will explore the question of how visions of the future involving this new energy vector are taking shape in distinct social and geographical spaces. 

Convenors

• Pr David Koester, University of Alaska Fairbanks
• Dr Bernard Buron, CITERES, Université François Rabelais de Tours
• Dr Jean-Philippe Fouquet, Université François-Rabelais Tours, ETIcS

Invited Speakers

• Dr Fabienne Picard, Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard (UTBM) – FRANCE
• Dr Sangook Park, School of Public Administration - Soongsil University (Seoul) – SOUTH COREA
• Dr Béatrice Cointe, Laboratoire méditerranéen de sociologie (LAMES UMR 7305) , Aix-Marseille Université – FRANCE
• Pr Stefan Bouzarovski, University of Manchester – UK
• Dr Alain Nadaï, Centre International de Recherche sur l’Environnement et le Développent (CIRED) – FRANCE
• Pr Dominique Pécaud, Institut de l’Homme et de la Technologie, Polytech Nantes, Université de Nantes – FRANCE
• Dr Hervé Flanquart, Université du Littotal Côte d’Opale (ULCO) – FRANCE
• Dr Vanesa Castan Broto, University College London - UK
• Sanne Østergaard Nielsen, Business Academy Aarhus - DENMARK
• Stanley Osserman, Hawaii Center for Advanced Transportation Technologies - USA 
• Dr Sharon Klein, University of Maine - USA  
• Pr Dominique Desjeux, Université Paris Descartes Sorbone Paris Cité - France

PROGRAMME

Monday 7th November

• 09H15    Welcome coffee – registration
• 09H45    Opening remarks            
• 10H05    CITERES Patrice Melé
  ETICS, Thibault Danteur, Jean-Philippe Fouquet, Christèle Assegond

Session I – Communities, Projects and Visions

CHAIR Dr Alain Nadaï        

• 10H45    Dr Sharon Klein
  The Power of the People: socio-economic dimensions of community-based energy initiatives in the United States
• 11H25    Pr Dominique Pécaud
  Social acceptability or the hypothesis of sociological voluntarism     
• 12H10    Lunch            

Session II – Zooming in on Hydrogen Programs

CHAIR Pr Stefan Bouzarovski

• 14H00    Pr David Koester
  The social and discursive dimensions of hydrogen in the energy transition    
• 14H40    Dr Béatrice Cointe
  Hydrogen futures on the lab bench: a sociological investigation of one interdisciplinary research project on biohydrogen
• 15H20    Dr Sangook Park
  Social Shaping of the Hydrogen Future: a Comparative Case Study on the Hydrogen Niche Formation in Iceland, Korea and the UK.    
• 16H00    Coffee Break            

Roundtable – Hydrogen and Energy Transitions in Hawai‘i and Denmark

MODERATOR Pr David Koester

• 16H30    Stan Osserman & Dr Sanne Østergaard Nielsen
• 18H00    Shuttle departure for Chateau of Villandry - Wine tasting and gala dinner

Tuesday 8th November

• 09H30    Morning coffee

Session III –  Urban and Local, Materiality and Social Spaces in the Energy Transition

CHAIR Dr Sharon Klein    

• 10H00    Pr Stefan Bouzarovski 
  Retrofitting the City: Practices of resilience and flexibility in the built environment    
• 10H40    Dr Vanesa Castán Broto
  The material politics of urban energy transitions    
• 11H20    Coffee Break            
• 11H40    Dr Alain Nadaï
  Surfing on TEPOS, reach and limits of French Policy localism
• 12H30    Lunch at Les Lionceaux        

Session IV  – Frames for Hydrogen Energy

CHAIR DR Vanesa Castan Broto

• 14H30    Dr Fabienne Picard
  Approaching the fuel cell technologies from an industrial perspective     
• 15H10    Dr Hervé Flanquart
  Installations of production and storage of energy: what social acceptability? Is hydrogen a special case?
• 15H50    Coffee break            
• 16H10    Pr Dominique Desjeux
  What are the constraints and potentialities of the social process of transformation of energy uses?    
• 16H50    Discussion and closing words
• 18H30    LE STUDIUM Lecture, Côme Bastin, journalist Paléo-énergétique, WE DEMAIN
• 20H00    Dinner at Les Saveurs

Wednesday 9th November

• 09H30    Shuttle departure from Tours
• Guided visit of Amboise Castle
• 12H30    Lunch at the Restaurant l'Orangerie - Chenonceau Castle
  Guided visit of Chenonceau Castle
• 16H00    Departure from the Castle ( Arrival in Tours around 17h)

Pricing

TALK, ABSTRACT & POSTER SUBMISSION

Abstract, Bio & Poster must be written in English. 

PRACTICAL INFORMATIONS

• List of recommended Hotels in Tours