Novel Approaches to Environmental Sociology: The use of photovoice to envision energy transitions and sustainable futures

• In Event: 30821 - Open Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 12

Abstract

The Biden presidency assigned millions of dollars to the reconstruction of Puerto Rico’s electrical system, including the installations of thousands of residential solar systems. Through a questionably participatory process, the PR 100, experts and other stakeholders claimed that one of the best ways to achieve energy justice and resilience was through the installation of such systems in low- and medium-income households. However, still most of the investment has been applied to the hardening of the grid. Given the transformation that the penetration of renewables brings to the local landscape, and the changes in electricity usage that that they unchain, the question that a lot of community leaders are asking is how aligned are these investments with the vision that community members have of their own community’s future? To be able to answer that question, an interdisciplinary team of researchers designed a study using the photovoice methodology to uncover what the visions of their energy future in several communities of the Puerto Rican archipelago are. 30 participants from three community groups, two from the south and another from the northwest of the main island took pictures for a period of two months. Then we held 2 focus groups on each site to elicit their visions of their community’s future and to select the pictures that were more meaningful to them for a photo exhibit. Preliminary results suggest that there is a positive bias towards solar energy among the projects participants and their visions of their community’s future include the rapid transition to renewables at the household level, although possible arrangements are communal in nature (community microgrids for example). However, the lack of trust in the local government’s capacity to administer such a transition leads them to believe that fossil fuels will continue to govern over Puerto Rico’s electrical system and that if renewables are integrated to the grid, it will be replicating the same vulnerabilities and injustices of the prevailing system.

Authors

• Marla Del Pilar Perez-Lugo, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

• Laura Kuhl, School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and International Affairs Program, Northeastern University

• Eduardo Lugo, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez

• Cecilio Ortiz Garcia, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley