Energy, space, and movement : Toward a framework for theorizing energy justice

Summary, in English

This paper attempts to assemble a conceptual framework for understanding to what extent an energy technology is simply a way of putting nature to work, and to what extent it is a way of putting other segments of global society to work. The turn to fossil energy reversed the relation between energy and space, as fossil fuels henceforth propelled new transport technologies that provided access to increasingly wider spans of space. Velocity is a measure of the amount of time required to traverse a given space, and given a certain mass and amount of friction, it can be physically expressed as the dissipation of a given quantity of energy. Technological progress has cognate implications for labour productivity and velocity: both entail an increase in exosomatic energy dissipation that is contingent on the appropriation of embodied labour time and natural space. In concealing the dependency of industrial technology on asymmetric resource transfers, general-purpose money continues to distort the conventional understanding of technology even in Marxist theory. Given that technology is a manifestation of capital, a fundamental paradox of Marxism is its aspiration to combine a critique of capital accumulation with a vision of technological progress.

• Author: Alf Hornborg
• Department/s: Human Ecology
• Publishing year: 2020
• Language: English
• Pages: 8-20
• Publication/Series: Geografiska Annaler, Series B: Human Geography
• Volume: 102
• Issue: 1
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/04353684.2019.1682939
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Topic: Human Geography
• Keywords: energy; space; movement; justice; technology; capital
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 1468-0467