Energy Transition in the Nebular City: Connecting Transition Thinking, Metabolism Studies, and Urban Design

Griet Juwet and Michael Ryckewaert
Additional contact information
Griet Juwet: Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research, Department of Geography, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, BE-1050 Brussels, Belgium
Michael Ryckewaert: Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research, Department of Geography, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, BE-1050 Brussels, Belgium

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 4, 1-20

Abstract: Transforming urban infrastructures is an essential part of creating more sustainable urban regions. But rethinking these complex systems requires a better understanding of their spatial dimensions and their relation with urban morphology and spatial structure. This paper addresses that gap by examining different conceptualizations of technical infrastructure and space in science, technology and society studies (STS), transition thinking, urban metabolism studies, and urban political ecology, and draws connections with the spatial perspective of urban planning and design. It illustrates and tests these concepts through the case of energy transition in the Flemish region of Belgium. Transport and supply networks have played a crucial role in facilitating, structuring, and reproducing the region’s characteristic dispersed and energy-intensive urban landscape. Bringing different disciplinary perspectives together, the research broadens the conceptualization of the spatial dimension in transition thinking, and identifies useful concepts and design parameters for urban design to engage with the technical and socio-political complexity of transforming urban infrastructure. It reveals the energy transition as an inherently spatial project, and explores the spatially and socio-politically transformative potential of the transition towards a new energy system.

Keywords: energy transition; urban metabolism; urban design; dispersed urbanization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/4/955/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/4/955/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:4:p:955-:d:137998

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().