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8th Ethnography and Qualitative Research ConferenceUniversity of Bergamo,Bergamo, Italy3-6 June 2020Ethnographies of energy production in times of transitionPanel Organizers : Noura AlKhalili (LundUniversity) and Gloria Pessina(Politecnico di Milano)We invite contributions on cases from the Global South and North. If you are interested to join our panel, please send an abstract (max 1000 words) including the title of the paper and your affiliation to noura.alkhalili@keg.lu.se, gloria.pessina@polimi.it and erq.conference@unibg.it by January 10th 2020. For more detailed info on submission check this link: http://www.etnografiaricercaqualitativa.it/how-to-submitPanel DescriptionKeywords: electric power stations; energytransition; large-scale renewable energy plants; energy justice; workplace ethnographies.Emerging disciplines such as the Energy Humanities (Szeman &#38;Boyer 2017) are currently showing the need to overcome strict scientificboundaries in order to grasp the complexity of the current socio-economic andecological transition at multiple geographical scales. It is in this frameworkthat recent studies on energy ethnography have taken place (Smith &#38; High2017; Goodman 2018), mostly with the aim of shedding light on the social andmaterial dimension of apparently invisible energy infrastructures. Only fewstudies adopted an ethnographic approach to research on energy productionplaces (Bougleux 2012), be it traditional workplaces such as thermoelectric (ornuclear) power stations or more recently renewable energy power plants andterritories, probably due to the difficulty of accessing the field. Severalresearches engaged with the ethnography of energy consumption, investigatingvalues, practices and habits of the end-users (Strauss et. al 2013), whileothers paid more attention to the impacts on everyday life of mineralextraction and energy production, especially in the Global South (Sawyer 2014;Howe &#38; Boyer 2016).Lately, emerging research is tackling EU’s decarbonisationstrategy and mitigation of climate change through investigating transition torenewable energies. Specifically, the Saharan desert of North Africa is perceived as a vast untappedsupply of nearby renewable energy. Equally, North African countries are highlyinterested in energy transitions to renewables for both domestic use andexport. There is not much research around large-scale renewable energyproduction schemes and only a few studies mention issues of land ownership andthe presence of communities in these areas (Rignall 2016).Clearly, more empirical research – and ethnographic – is needed tofocus on culture, power, social relations and the people’s lived experiences inand around energy production plants. Ethnography is crucial so to bring to thefore elements such as gender differences and other less visible power relationsin the context of study. It also helps to contextualize the ontologicalpositions and subjectivities of people and gives local meaning to the relationto technology, society and environment. Therefore, this call for papers inviteseither ethnographic or qualitative contributions that deal with themes aroundenergy transition and climate justice, highlighting aspects related tocommunities around both renewable and traditional energy production plants,issues of land enclosures, manufacturing processes, local participation forjust energy production and transfer.Open questions:1. How is energy producedin times of ecological transition and economic crisis?2. How can energyproduction work be observed and described by ethnographers?3. What is the role ofthe human work in traditional and renewable energy production? How does itinteract with machine work?4. Which power relationscharacterize traditional energy production workplaces (e.g. thermoelectricpower stations) and renewable energy production territories (e.g. solar powerplants)?5. Which forms of localresistance to new energy production plants or to the dismantling of underusedtraditional plants can be recognized?6. To what extent doenergy production workplaces and territories shed light on the currentsocio-economic conjuncture?7. Which territories arecurrently emerging in the global energy production geography? Which aredeclining?8. To what extentlarge-scale renewable energy production schemes are bound to be a new form ofexploitation?ReferencesBougleux E., 2012,Soggetti egemoni e saperisubalterni. Etnografia in una multinazionale del settore dell’energia, Firenze: Nardini.Goodman J., 2018, “Researching climate crisis and energy transition:Some issues for ethnography”,Energy Research &#38;Social Science, 45: 340-347.Howe C., Boyer D., 2016, “Aeolian extractivism and community win inSouthern Mexico”,Public Culture, 28 (2(79)): 215-235.Huber M., 2015, “Energy and social power. From political ecology tothe ecology of politics”. In: Perreault T., Bridge G., Mac Carthy J. (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Political Ecology, Oxon: Routledge.Rignall, K., 2016, “Solar Power, State Power, and the Politics ofEnergy Transition in Pre-Saharan Morocco”, Environment and PlanningA, 48(3):540–557.Sawyer S., 2014, Crude Chronicles. Indigenous Politics, MultinationalOil, and Neoliberalism in Ecuador, Durham: Duke University Press.Smith J., High M.M., 2017, “Exploring the anthropology of energy:Ethnography, energy and ethics”,Energy Research &#38;Social Science, 30: 1-6.&#160;Strauss S., Rupp S., Love T., 2013,Cultures of Energy:Power, Practices, Technologies, London: Routledge.Szeman I., Boyer D., 2017, Energy Humanities: An Anthology, Baltimore: John HopkinsUniversity Press.