Correction to: Pilot Society and the Energy Transition

The original version of this book was revised. The book was inadvertently published with an incorrect surname to Tomas Moe Skjølsvold of captioned title as “Moe Skjølsvold” whereas it should be “Skjølsvold”. The author’s name has been updated in the book.

Catering for Socio-technical Transformations: Rethinking Technology Policy for Inclusive Transformation

This chapter zooms out from looking at concrete pilot projects to looking more broadly at the implications of discussions on pilot projects as sites of politics. We discuss how such a perspective might feed into the work of innovators, funding bodies and the making of broader technology policy agendas. The chapter highlights the great potential in pilot projects as a mode of innovation for energy transitions, but bring to the fore the way such innovation activities often take on traditional and technology-centred characteristics. We argue that there is a need to change not only the ways that projects are funded to ensure diverse scientific participation. It is equally important to challenge the underlying assumptions and questions asked in pilot activities, as well as the goals of such energy transition activities. This entails a distributed agenda, where actors across the ecology of innovation share responsibilities for moving towards more just, democratic and humane modes of experimenting for sustainability.

The Co-production of Pilot Projects and Society

This chapter discusses the shaping of pilot projects. Against a critique that such projects tend to be shaped top-down by powerful actors, our discussion notes how such projects are also shaped locally by materiality, culture, actors, interests and issues. Through this we show how projects end up looking very different from each other while enacting diverse socio-technical futures. We discuss three types of pilot projects: technology-oriented projects, geographically bound projects and national laboratories. We argue that pilot projects, in either form tend to mirror and amplify the interests of involved actors, and we proceed to discuss the potential politics of such projects. We do this by discussing processes of scaling up pilot projects, and through upscaling, shaping broader aspects of society. As these projects often have wide transformational ambitions, we conclude that a focus on who participates and who does not is central for future research.

Transforming Society Through Pilot and Demonstration Projects

This chapter introduces pilot and demonstration projects as a key mode of innovation within contemporary energy and mobility transitions. It argues that such projects are important political sites for the production of future socio-technical order. The politics of such projects are contested: on the one hand, they have been argued to remove political agency from deliberative fora in favour of private decisions, on the other hand they have been argued to constitute new democratic opportunities. This chapter situates a discussion on these issues within Science and Technology Studies (STS). The chapter further discusses the relationship between STS and some of the currently dominating approaches to sustainability transitions and argues how STS can bring new insights to the study of energy transitions and societal change. The chapter also provides basic insights into some key social and technical aspects of current energy and mobility transitions.

Democratic and Participatory Pilot Projects?

This chapter starts from the normative assumption that since pilot projects are key sites in the shaping of future societies, it is essential that they are conducted in an inclusive and democratic way. Building on key perspectives from STS, we focus on two aspects: First, we consider participation as an orchestrated and distributed phenomenon, highlighting the fact that the way actors participate in such innovation activities will be shaped by technologies, assumptions and the work of a series of actors related to pilot projects. Consequently, we also note how new forms of participation can be actively nurtured. Second, we explore the role of technologies in shaping material participation. Here, we explore how material traits might produce new forms of awareness, knowledge or literacy, and new practices or action, amounting to what we call energy citizenship.