Speakers
Description
The term "energy transition" is often oversimplified in public discourse, reduced to a focus on emissions-free energy targets while black-boxing the intricate global supply chains and material flows that sustain them (Nadaï and Wallenborn, 2019). Rather than a uniform shift, energy transitions involve reconfigurations of socio-technical systems that reshape landscapes, infrastructures, and daily practices across geographies (Rotmans et al., 2001; Gailing and Moss, 2016; Buell, 2017). This abstraction risks misrepresenting the uneven spatial manifestations of transitions, where some regions advance while others remain burdened by legacy systems (Fuenfschilling and Binz, 2018).
Understanding the complexity of energy transitions requires analytical tools that reveal how global supply chains unfold in local contexts, materialising as production facilities, infrastructure, and worker settlements, all embedded in specific environmental conditions. Current approaches lack the tools to trace and represent material flows across scales while simultaneously capturing their socio-spatial configurations and territorial transformations. To address this gap, this study proposes a cross-scale mapping methodology that traces how uranium, as a material agent, shapes networks of production, infrastructure, and settlement patterns across interconnected sites. Developed through research and teaching in urban design and architecture at the Technical University of Berlin, this approach situates energy transitions within multi-scalar networks, linking chemical processes to physical landscapes and technological artefacts to urban agglomerations.
Taking a neo-materialist perspective – emphasising how material properties and flows shape socio-spatial configurations (Knowles, 2014; Hecht, 2014; Beckert, 2015; Tsing, 2021) – the study reveals that uranium’s territorial and social impacts challenge conventional notions of “green” energy. The methodology combines GIS-based territorial analysis with drawings, process diagrams, and verbal descriptions to visualise the spatiality of these socio-material assemblages from extraction to disposal. Through this, the approach integrates multiple scales, tracing uranium’s molecular impact to the socio-technical systems and large-scale territorial patterns it generates. By mapping material flows across interconnected sites, it visualises how uranium’s role in energy transitions co-produces dwelling, spilling, and hiding places, while highlighting historical path dependencies and inequalities often overlooked in sustainability frameworks.
The analysis begins in Arlit, Niger, where coal-powered uranium mining imposes severe socio-environmental costs on nearby settlements, underscoring the energy justice inequalities as local communities bear the burden of distant energy demands (Jenkins et al., 2016; McCauley et al., 2013; Sovacool et al., 2017). It then traces uranium’s commodification and enrichment in France, where nuclear energy is framed as "green" under the EU’s Green Taxonomy. Finally, the study examines Philippsburg, Germany, where interim nuclear storage facilities highlight the ongoing elephant in the room: what to do with nuclear waste?
References
Beckert, S., 2015. Empire of Cotton: A New History of Global Capitalism. London: Penguin.
Buell, F., 2017. 'Energy Systems'. In: J. Wenzel and P. Yaeger, eds. Fueling Culture: 101 Words for Energy and Environment. Fordham Press.
Fuenfschilling, L. et al., 2018. 'Global Socio-Technical Regimes'. Research Policy, 47(4).
Gailing, L. et al., 2016. Conceptualizing Germany’s Energy Transition.
Geels, F. W., 2002. 'Technological Transitions as Evolutionary Reconfiguration Processes'. Research Policy, 31(8).
Hecht, G., 2014. Being Nuclear: Africans and the Global Uranium Trade. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Jenkins, K. et al., 2016. 'Energy Justice: A Conceptual Review'. Energy Research & Social Science, 11.
Kemp, R. et al., 1998. 'Regime Shifts to Sustainability through Niche Formation'. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 10(2).
Knowles, C., 2014. Flip-Flop: A Journey Through Globalisation’s Backroads. London: Pluto.
McCauley, D. A. et al., 2013. 'Advancing Energy Justice: The Triumvirate of Tenets'. International Energy Law Review, 32(3).
Nadaï, A. and Wallenborn, G., 2019. 'Energy Transformations under Strong Ecological Constraint'. Multitudes, 77(4).
Rotmans, J. et al., 2001. 'More Evolution than Revolution'. Foresight, 3(1).
Sovacool, B. K. et al., 2017. 'New Frontiers and Conceptual Framework for Energy Justice'. Energy Policy, 105.
Tsing, A. L. et al., 2020. Feral Atlas. Stanford: Stanford Press.
| Keywords | Energy; Transition; Justice; Material Flows; Mapping; Nuclear; Green Taxonomy |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
