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                Dear colleagues,

Please find a call for abstracts for a special issue related to one of last year’s EASST conference tracks:

Call for Abstracts for a Special Issue of FUTURES JOURNAL
Hydrogen pasts, presents and futures
Deadline: March 15, 2025

Guest Editors:
Kornelia Konrad, University of Twente, Michael Kriechbaum, University of Graz,
Filip Rozborski, Maastricht University, Andreas Weber, University of Twente

The Paris Agreement requires a profound transformation of energy systems and their climate impact. This includes drastic reductions of carbon dioxide emission not only within sectors in which multiple solutions exist but also within sectors considered ‘hard to abate’, such as the chemical or steel industry. Not the least with a view on these sectors, hydrogen has been rediscovered and is experiencing unprecedented levels of societal attention as a versatile energy carrier that is expected to complement electrification efforts and link various sectors, including electricity, transportation, industry, and buildings. Corresponding to these rising expectations, more than 60 countries have published hydrogen strategies and roadmaps as of May 2024 (Corbeau & Kaswiyanto, 2024), formulating their specific visions of a hydrogen economy. Moreover, there has been exponential growth in public and private investments and a surge of large-scale hydrogen projects worldwide (IEA, 2023). Particularly important in many current concepts is the vision of a global hydrogen economy, connecting hydrogen exporting and importing countries, often following present and past resource flows between Global South and Global North countries.
While the intensity of the current hydrogen hype and scale of investments are unprecedented, the vision of hydrogen as an energy carrier has a long past. Initial technologies for creating and using hydrogen were already invented in the 19th century, and multiple waves of enthusiasm occurred throughout the 20th and early 21st century, connected to different societal hopes such as energy independence, democratisation and technological progress (Hacking et al. 2019; Yap & McLellan, 2023; Budde & Konrad, 2019; Bakker & Budde, 2012; Sovacool and Brossmann, 2010). However, the concrete visions and expectations with regard to both hydrogen production and use changed drastically over time, for instance from a focus on hydrogen cars and stationary fuel cells in buildings around the turn of the millennium to the current strong hopes on ‘green’ hydrogen for the steel and chemical sectors, reflecting the changing concerns of their times.
Scholars in the futures field have explored various aspects of hydrogen futures. They have scrutinized past dynamics of hydrogen futures (e.g., Ruef & Markard, 2010; Bakker & Budde, 2012; Konrad et al., 2012), but also their relatively high resilience (Sovacool and Brossmann, 2010; Eames et al., 2006). While studies within previous waves of interest have focused on dynamics of hydrogen future discourses, current research calls for examining the relationship between hydrogen futures and hydrogen pasts (Hollenhorst, 2023), as well as established imaginaries regarding social order and energy transformation (e.g., Hanusch & Schad, 2021; Virens, 2024; de Leeuw & Vogl, 2024; Dorn, 2024; Beasy, 2022). Additionally, other scholars have pointed to the importance of spatial differences and materialities of hydrogen futures (Hine, Gibbson & Carr, 2024; Trencher & van der Hijden, 2019), and underlined how global hydrogen futures are shaped by power structures and global North-South dynamics (Kalt & Tunn, 2022; Rodhouse et al., 2024; Flavdad, 2020).
The envisaged Special Issue welcomes contributions investigating present and past hydrogen futures, their context of emergence, their performativity, and the relation between both. We also welcome contributors who tackle specific hydrogen-related projects, policies, research and innovation activities and how a transition to green hydrogen may impact various regions and sectors. Contributors are invited to pay particular attention to how hydrogen visions, expectations and imaginaries relate to (hydrogen) pasts, presents, and futures. For instance, how are present hydrogen futures formed and carried by (if not ‘stuck’ in) present concerns? How are they simultaneously shaped by the specific pasts of places, social groups, sectors and knowledge fields? To what extend do they relate to and reflect past hydrogen futures? How do emerging material and socio-political structures co-produce global and local energy futures? How do hydrogen visions relate to histories of colonialism and extraction?

References
Bakker, S., & Budde, B. (2012a). Technological hype and disappointment: lessons from the hydrogen and fuel cell case. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 24(6), 549–563. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537325.2012.693662
Bakker, S., & Budde, B. (2012b). Technological hype and disappointment: Lessons from the hydrogen and fuel cell case. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 24(6), 549–563. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537325.2012.693662
Beasy, K. (2022). Hydrogen economies and energy futures: A new Australian dream? Energy Research & Social Science, 91, 102751. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2022.102751
Budde, B., & Konrad, K. (2019). Tentative governing of fuel cell innovation in a dynamic network of expectations. Research Policy, 48(5), 1098–1112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2019.01.007
Corbeau, M.‑S., & Kaswiyanto, R. P. (2024). National Hydrogen Strategies and Roadmap Tracker. https://www.energypolicy.columbia.edu/publications/national-hydrogen-strategies-and-roadmap-tracker/
Dorn, F. M. (2024). Towards a multi-color hydrogen production network? Competing imaginaries of development in northern Patagonia, Argentina. Energy Research & Social Science, 110, 103457. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2024.103457
Eames, M., McDowall, W., Hodson, M., & Marvin, S. (2006). Negotiating contested visions and place-specific expectations of the hydrogen economy. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 18(3-4), 361–374. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537320600777127
Fladvad, B. (2023). Infrastructuring environmental (in)justice: green hydrogen, Indigenous sovereignty and the political geographies of energy technologies. Geographica Helvetica, 78(4), 493–505. https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-78-493-2023
Hacking, N., Pearson, P., & Eames, M. (2019). Mapping innovation and diffusion of hydrogen fuel cell technologies: Evidence from the UK's hydrogen fuel cell technological innovation system, 1954–2012. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 44(57), 29805–29848. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2019.09.137
Hanusch, F., & Schad, M. (2021). Hydrogen research: technology first, society second? GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society, 30(2), 82–86. https://doi.org/10.14512/gaia.30.2.5
Hine, A., Gibson, C., & Carr, C. (2024). Green hydrogen regions: emergent spatial imaginaries and material politics of energy transition. Regional Studies, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2024.2314553
Hollenhorst, J. (2023). Why hydrogen’s carbon past matters for hydrogen futures. GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society, 32(2), 225–229. https://doi.org/10.14512/gaia.32.2.4
IEA. (2023). Global Hydrogen Review 2023. https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/ecdfc3bb-d212-4a4c-9ff7-6ce5b1e19cef/GlobalHydrogenReview2023.pdf
Kalt, T., & Tunn, J. (2022). Shipping the sunshine? A critical research agenda on the global hydrogen transition. GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society, 31(2), 72–76. https://doi.org/10.14512/gaia.31.2.2
Konrad, K., Markard, J., Ruef, A., & Truffer, B. (2012). Strategic responses to fuel cell hype and disappointment. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 79(6), 1084–1098. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2011.09.008
Leeuw, G. de, & Vogl, V. (2024). Scrutinising commodity hype in imaginaries of the Swedish green steel transition. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, Article 25148486241238398. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/25148486241238398
Rodhouse, T., Cuppen, E., Correljé, A. F., & Pesch, U. (2024). A new carrier for old assumptions? Imagined publics and their justice implications for hydrogen development in the Netherlands. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 204, 123412. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2024.123412
Ruef, A., & Markard, J. (2010). What happens after a hype? How changing expectations affected innovation activities in the case of stationary fuel cells. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 22(3), 317–338. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537321003647354
Sovacool, B. K., & Brossmann, B. (2010). Symbolic convergence and the hydrogen economy. Energy Policy, 38(4), 1999–2012. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2009.11.081
Trencher, G., & van der Heijden, J. (2019). Contradictory but also complementary: National and local imaginaries in Japan and Fukushima around transitions to hydrogen and renewables. Energy Research & Social Science, 49, 209–218. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2018.10.019
Virens, A. (2024). Green hydrogen futures: Tensions of energy and justice within sociotechnical imaginaries. Energy Research & Social Science, 114, 103587. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2024.103587
Yap, J., & McLellan, B. (2023). A Historical Analysis of Hydrogen Economy Research, Development, and Expectations, 1972 to 2020. Environments, 10(1), 11. https://doi.org/10.3390/environments10010011

Deadlines and submission instructions

  *   Please submit expressions of interest in the form of an abstract (300-400 words) by email to Kornelia Konrad (k.e.konrad@utwente.nl), Michael Kriechbaum (michael.kriechbaum@uni-graz.at), Filip Rozborski (filip.rozborski@maastrichtuniversity.nl) and Andreas Weber (a.weber@utwente.nl) by March 15, 2025.
  *   Acceptance of abstracts will be communicated in April.
  *   Manuscripts may be submitted to Futures starting 1 June 2025. Deadline for submission of papers is 1 December 2025. Submissions before the deadline will enter the review process earlier.
  *   Individual papers will be published online first as soon as they are accepted and ready for publication.
  *   The expected publishing date of the Special Issue is approximately September / October 2026.
  *   Please read the guidance to authors before submitting (http://www.elsevier.com/journals/futures/0016-3287/guide-for-authors)


Dr. Kornelia Konrad
Associate Professor ‘Anticipation and Assessment of Emerging Technologies’ https://people.utwente.nl/k.e.konrad
University of Twente|Department of Technology, Policy and Society|Section Knowledge, Transformation & Society (KiTeS)
BMS faculty research theme chair Emerging Technologies & Societal Transformations
Associate Editor Futures
+31 53 489 3906, k.e.konrad@utwente.nl
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