 Rural electrification systems based on renewable energy: The social dimensions of an innovative technologyVictoria Gómez García and Mercedes Montero Bartolomé Technology in Society, 2010, vol. 32, issue 4, 303-311 Abstract: Many areas in rural non-Western regions are installing electrification systems based on renewable energy. Although these projects are usually welcome, they sometimes fail. Explanations for failures often cite technical reasons. In this research, partly based on the results of the SOPRA_RE project, we focus on the users, studying the relationships between technology and society. By analysing potential sources of failures, we identify the root of the problem as how a new technology is received by the local society. In this paper we introduce dimensions that we consider to be especially important in the process of technology integration. We defend the importance of combining the technical outlook with the sociological one, based on the idea that the latter is often indispensable as a complementary element of technical explanations of system failures, which in turn provides a better basis for solving them. We use specific examples to bolster our insistence on the need to achieve convergence between the technical and the sociological outlooks. Keywords: Electrification; Renewable energy (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:teinso:v:32:y:2010:i:4:p:303-311 DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2010.10.007 Access Statistics for this article Technology in Society is currently edited by Charla Griffy-Brown More articles in Technology in Society from Elsevier |
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