Pete North, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool

 What does transition mean?  Who is transitioning, and how?  What is the relationship between societies, technologies, visions and actors?  Who has the capacity to transition what? businesses, social enterprises and communities, cities, regions?  What scales does transition work at: the societal? The local trap? What are the barriers, issues?

Theorising energy transitions: what we know and what we don’t Professor John Grin, University of Amsterdam Lessons from ESRC seminar series “Geographies of Energy Transition” Dr Gavin Bridge, University of Manchester Low Carbon Britain Bruce Heargarty, CAT Sustainable Urban Futures: the Geography of Transition James Evans: University of Manchester Transitions in the emerging economies: Lessons from China and India Suzannah Fisher, University of Cambridge Taking transition forward? Discussion led by Peter North and Gavin Brown

 Debates over peak oil, and the social construction of oil as a resource.  Energy as a polysemic, contradictory term. Historically and geographically situated.  Transition: willed or immanent?  Extent of the disruption: electric capitalism?  Energy technologies as generative subjects.  Uneven development of energy transitions across space.

 Persistence of problems, and doubts about unintended consequences. How acute is the problem? Can we do good, not ill?  Understanding a multilevel, complex governance process across multiple domains – with energy as an object and a facilitator.  Three pillars: social technical change, complex systems, governance.  Role of innovation, experiments and niches in regime change.  Comparative historical studies: agency under thought >  Is a structuration approach adequate? SM studies: added value?  How to manage transition: struggle, governance or markets?  Engaging with society: relationship between technologies and uses.