The first DEMAND Summer School lived up to its name with fieldwork, floorball, evening meals and camping trips all taking place in the sunshine. The title ‘Energy histories and energy futures’ framed a programme of seminars, discussions, fieldwork and workshops organised around themes of demand in the past, flexibility and negotiability and future demand. DEMAND centre visitors and researchers presented a varied set of theoretical ideas and empirical materials. We puzzled over the importance of synchronicity and rhythm for energy demand, the kinds of obduracy that are found in transport and energy infrastructures, the implications of studying disruptions for understanding change and how we might look for evidence of the future in the present.
The 29 participants were international (from USA, UK, Canada and Europe) had backgrounds in a broad range of disciplines (sociology, engineering, history, architecture), and included PhD students, early career researchers, and practitioners from non-academic sectors. This made for some interesting and lively discussions, the themes of which were explored on day two, when groups spent the afternoon conducting ‘fieldwork’ in the city of Lancaster. We received very positive feedback about the Event, and really enjoyed participating ourselves. The links below provide more detail on the 3 days.
Summer school was organised by: Nicola Spurling, Greg Marsden, Antonio Ferreira, Elizabeth Shove, Gordon Walker, Kate Wright.
The camping trip was organised by Joe Gillett and Neil Simcock.
