Community energy initiatives to alleviate fuel poverty: the material politics of Energy Cafés

Community action has an increasingly prominent role in the debates surrounding transitions to sustainability. Initiatives such as community energy projects, community gardens, local food networks and car sharing clubs provide new spaces for sustainable consumption, and combinations of technological and social innovations. These initiatives, which are often driven by social good rather than by pure monetary motives, have been conceptualised as grassroots innovations.

Previous research in grassroots innovations has largely focused on conceptualising such initiatives and analysing their potential for replication and diffusion; there has been less research on the politics involved in these initiatives. The paper examines grassroots innovations as forms of political engagement that are different from the 1970s’ alternative technology movements.

Authors: Martiskainen, M., Heiskanen, E. and Speciale, G