Landscapes of lost energy: counterfactual geographical imaginary for a more sustainable society

0430897 - ÚGN 2014 RIV CZ eng J - Journal Article
Van der Horst, Dan
Landscapes of lost energy: counterfactual geographical imaginary for a more sustainable society.
Moravian Geographical Reports. Roč. 22, č. 2 (2014), s. 66-72. ISSN 1210-8812. E-ISSN 1210-8812
R&D Projects: GA MŠMT EE2.3.20.0025
Institutional support: RVO:68145535
Keywords : counterfactual * imagery * imagination * energy literacy
Subject RIV: DE - Earth Magnetism, Geodesy, Geography
Impact factor: 0.872, year: 2014
http://www.geonika.cz/EN/research/ENMgr/MGR_2014_02.pdf

The quest for sustainable energy, one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century, calls for more input from academics than ‘simply’ producing good science. Geographical imaginations are as old as storytelling and mapmaking, but this essay is neither about ‘long ago and far away’, nor about utopian energy futures. This is a call to geographers to engage with ‘alternative present’ energy scenarios, using the full range of analytical and discursive tools at our disposal. Drawing on a diverse tradition of imagined spaces and the awareness of absences (material, relational or otherwise), geographers should be able to contribute to the quest for a more sustainable society by assessing, envisaging, and communicating a counterfactual ‘here and now’, based on good practices existing right now, but not (yet) right here. We need to understand how much more sustainable our bit of the planet would be if we could just, environmentally speaking, ‘keep up’ with the best of our neighbours. This counterfactual present should be seen as neither radical nor utopian, because it only assumes the historic adoption of best practices which we now know to be feasible and successful.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0235554