Eurograd message

                Dear colleagues,
<br>
<br>I hope you are well in these extraordinary times. Although we are aware that
<br>these are not as usual and it may take a while for things return to normal, we
<br>want to take the liberty to send you a reminder of a call for participating in
<br>a workshop on energy systems and value change we are organizing in October.
<br>The deadline for contributions is June, 1. The full text is below. Feel free
<br>to distribute this call in your network. I hope you will consider contributing
<br>despite the hectic times. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
<br>
<br>Warm regards,
<br>Anna Melnyk
<br>
<br>_________________
<br>
<br>Call for papers for workshop and special issue Energy Systems and Changing
<br>Values
<br>15 to 17 October 2020, TU Delft, The Netherlands
<br>
<br>Call for contributions
<br>We invite contributions to a workshop on Energy systems and changing values to
<br>be held from 15 to 17 October 2020 in Delft, The Netherlands. People
<br>interested in contributing to the workshop are requested to submit a 300-word
<br>abstract to info@valuechange.eu  before 1 June
<br>2020. You will be notified before 1 July whether you are selected for
<br>inclusion in the workshop. We expect to be able to select around 15 papers. A
<br>limited number of travel stipends will be available for graduate students who
<br>face financial constraints, but who are willing to participate and whose
<br>abstracts are accepted. We especially encourage candidates from
<br>underrepresented groups to apply. Selected authors are requested to send a
<br>draft paper of 3000 to 5000 words before 1 September 2020. At the workshop, we
<br>will discuss the draft papers of the various contributors. After the workshop,
<br>we will invite a selection of the contributions for a special issue of
<br>Science, Technology & Human Values.
<br>
<br>Keynote speakers
<br>Confirmed keynote speakers include Benjamin Sovacool (Professor of Energy
<br>Policy at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of
<br>Sussex), Rafaela Hillerbrand (Professor of Philosophy of Engineering,
<br>Technology Assessment, and Science at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) and
<br>Martin Peterson (Professor of Philosophy and Bovay Professor of the History
<br>and Ethics of Professional Engineering at the Texas A&M University).
<br>
<br>Description
<br>In many parts of the world, the need for a transition to more sustainable
<br>energy systems is felt. It is obvious that the energy transition is a
<br>technical and economic process, but it also requires changes in institutions
<br>and values. Values that play a role in energy transition include energy
<br>efficiency; sustainability and other environmental values; security and
<br>reliability; social justice and fairness; autonomy and power; safety; privacy,
<br>aesthetics and landscape embedding. These values are not static but change
<br>over time; for example because a value may become less or more important.
<br>Sustainability was, for example, given less emphasis when the current energy
<br>systems were designed compared to the current energy transition. Another value
<br>that seems to gain in importance, due to a transition to more decentralized
<br>energy generation and the advance of community energy systems, is energy
<br>autarky. Another shape that value change can take is the emergence of new
<br>values. For example, energy justice and energy democracy have emerged as new
<br>values in the last decade in relation to the energy transition.
<br>
<br>Addressing value change is particularly important because energy systems have
<br>large technological and institutional momentum while they are often socially
<br>contested. The technological and institutional momentum implies that these
<br>systems are often hard to change; technical infrastructures are usually built
<br>for decades; and also institutional rules cannot be changed overnight. This
<br>makes it more difficult and costly to deal with value change. At the same
<br>time, the socially contested character of many energy technologies makes it
<br>not only crucial to properly address values for the ethical acceptability and
<br>social acceptance of these systems, but makes it also likely that new values
<br>will emerge in public debates about energy technologies. So while value change
<br>may be endemic in energy systems, these systems at the same time have
<br>characteristics that make it harder to deal with such value change.
<br>
<br>Value change in energy systems can be studied at different levels and from
<br>different angles, including, but not necessarily limited to, 1) changes in
<br>values among energy consumers and the general public, 2) changes in values of
<br>energy producers and grid operators, 3) changes in values implied by different
<br>energy technologies, 4) changes in values implied by different institutional
<br>and organizational arrangements for the production, distribution and
<br>consumption of energy, and the relations between these four.
<br>
<br>Topics
<br>Specific topics that could be addressed for the workshop include:
<br>     How can we conceptually and theoretically understand value change in the
<br>energy sector?
<br>     What are important historical value changes in the energy domain?
<br>     What methods are available for describing and analyzing value change in
<br>the energy domain?
<br>     What are the implications of value change for the design and governance
<br>of energy systems?
<br>     How are we to interpret the emergence of new values like energy justice
<br>and energy democracy?
<br>     What values are implied by different energy technologies? How do
<br>(changing) values play out in the design of different energy technologies?
<br>     How do values and institutional structures mutually shape each other in
<br>the energy sector?
<br>     Do value changes in the energy sector lead to new value tensions and
<br>what are possible ways of dealing with such value tensions?
<br>But other questions that fit the general theme are welcome as well.
<br>
<br>Funding
<br>The workshop is part of the project ValueChange that has received funding from
<br>the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020
<br>research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 788321. See:
<br>https://www.valuechange.eu/
<br>
<br>__________________
<br>
<br>
<br>Anna Melnyk
<br>
<br>TU Delft
<br>
<br>PhD Candidate
<br>
<br>Ethics/Philosophy of Technology | Technology, Policy & Management
<br>
<br>Building 31, Jaffalaan 5, 2628 BX, Delft, The Netherlands
<br>
<br>a.melnyk@tudelft.nl
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