Socio-Technical Systems and Urban Energy Politics in the 21st Century

• In Event: Energy Matters

Abstract

Cities are engaged in energy politics and expansion. To investigate the politics of energy systems, we focus on Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA as a case study. Philadelphia is the site of ongoing efforts to expand the fossil fuel infrastructure even as the city aims to meet new emission targets and rolls out sustainability programs. Key stakeholders involved in the fossil fuel expansion efforts are city and state officials, labor unions, industry leaders and spokespeople, and civil society groups and organizations such as Food and Water Watch and Delaware Riverkeepers Network. To investigate this topic, we used a multi-method approach that includes archival research, content analysis, informational interviews, and participant observation. In this presentation, we contribute to science and technology studies scholarship on social movements by showing how the decentralized, heterogeneous anti-fossil fuel movement combined with markets and local labor politics effectively slowed down fossil fuel expansion in Philadelphia. We also contribute to STS literatures on how socio-technical systems change (or do not change). Demonstrating how energy systems are co-produced by the interplay between city, state and federal policies, and technologies, we highlight the importance of paying attention to both infrastructure (e.g., pipelines, refineries, oil trains) and policies in energy projects. As a legacy fossil fuel state, Pennsylvania laws primarily privilege the interests of fossil fuel industry and the creation of fossil fuel infrastructures. Renewable energy companies and anti-fossil fuel activists are well aware of this, and are using litigation at the state and federal levels to transform socio-technical systems.

Authors

• Kelly Joyce, Drexel University

• Diane Sicotte, Drexel University