Challenges in Sustainability | 2016 | Volume 4 | Issue 2 | Pages 15–16

DOI: 10.12924/cis2016.04020015

ISSN: 2297–6477

Challenges in

Sustainability

Book Review

A Review of ‘Energy and Transport in Green Transition:

Perspectives on Ecomodernity’

Published: 12 December 2016

Keywords: climate change; economy; energy; mitigation; modernity; transport

Energy and Transport in Green Transition:

Perspectives on Ecomodernity

Atle Midttun and Nina Witoszek (Eds.)

Routledge: Oxford, UK. 2016

336 pp.; ISBN: 978-1138793439

Based both on scientiﬁc knowledge and the public opinion

to end fossil fuels, political regimes seek more actively to

substitute carbon-intense energy sources with greener and

cleaner alternatives. However, each attempt to transition

or transform energy production and consumption patterns

towards more sustainable ends is bound to be affected

by deep historical roots. As a result, both explaining and

predicting energy development trajectories have proven to

be a difﬁcult task since they are deeply political, covering

different social forces involved in the use, production and

distribution of natural resources. The authors of “Energy

and Transport in Green Transition—Perspectives on Eco-

modernity” face this challenge when attempting to address

the societally and scientiﬁcally crucial topic of energy and

climate change mitigation.

This book begins with grand ambitions as the authors at-

tempt “to go beyond both the extremism of the anti-capitalist

critique and the radical enthusiasm of techno-economic pos-

itivism” in their investigation to ﬁnd ways “to boost a greener

economy and culture” by resolving political, economic and

technological entanglements (p. 2). Their method of investi-

gation comprises of a regional comparative study of mature

Western economies, the rapidly developing China, and de-

veloping economies in sub-Saharan Africa. Importantly,

editors Atle Midttun and Nina Witoszek frame their work

on the “ongoing transformation” necessary to mitigate detri-

mental impacts on the climate as a “battle of modernities”.

(Ch. 1) In this battle, each of the modernities come with

their own myth, which all serve to mobilize the social world

towards speciﬁc (technological) development trajectories.

The authors construct a vision of the mitigation champion

in the modernity brawl, namely their particular brand of

“ecomodernity”, which they argue is emerging and able to

integrate the commercial, technological and, in particular,

cultural visions within the ideas of green growth.

As this is it important for potential readers, let us ﬁrst

give room to how the authors construct their argument. The

authors set off by decoding complex socio-economic green

transitions occurring across the world. More speciﬁcally,

the book covers two major themes: the history of energy

sectors across four geographical regions, and more con-

temporary developments in the automotive industry. In this

endeavour, the authors draw on neoclassical economic

concepts and innovation studies as they target: the ca-

pability to drive innovation, the ability to mobilize public

interest, and the challenges of staging complex pathways in

a heterogeneous world with countries at different stages of

development. The theoretical lineage that can be seen here

makes reference to Schumpeter, and the book builds on “a

multitude of international studies, reports, conferences and

civil society initiatives” (p. 14), making reference to Daly,

Max-Neef, Beck, Hajer, Dryzek, Jackson, and others.

Given the greater subject of sustainability and the grand-

ness of the book’s aspirations, it serves to articulate the

authors’ underpinning view on social change. Here, techno-

logical innovation and its diffusion play a central role—while

also disregarding the actual possibility to drive green innova-

tion at the level of Schumpeter’s gale of creative destruction

necessary to mitigate climate change (i.e. via industrial

mutation destroy and replace an economic structure from

within). Against this backdrop, the role of people and policy

is posited as relational to three cycles: a product cycle, a

visionary cycle, and an institutional cycle. Or in a charac-

 2016 by the authors; licensee Librello, Switzerland. This open access article was published

under a Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

librello

terization: as new green products and new societal visions

develop, they may be successful enough to mobilize public

intervention for more formalized and supporting institutions.

It is in the interface between these three cycles that the

authors place the dynamics of social change in “the battle

of modernities”. In particular, the interplay between the

product- and the visionary cycle is given priority by the

authors throughout the book. Subsequently, it is through

this lens each chapter is to interpret empirical observations

from across the world in order to theorize “in more detail the

emergent vision of ‘ecomodernity’, which combines both

technological, political, and cultural transformation” (p.14).

However, the challenge of drawing on so many, and

vastly different, cases – historically, politically, institution-

ally, geographically, biophysically, sociologically etc.—while

moving across such a long time span becomes apparent.

Going back to the book’s purpose, the analysis of empirical

ﬁndings from each case is not sufﬁciently anchored in their

theory. For example, the notion of mobilizing myths is only

on rare occasions empirically rooted, and overall becomes

reduced to ad-hoc arguments to ﬁll gaps in the narrative.

Thus, the authors do not provide the necessary depth to ex-

plain the dynamics of change involved in a truly convincing

manner, even within their own paradigm. In defence of the

authors, it is indicated in the Foreword that this is done to

assure maximum accessibility, indicating that it is intended

for a broader audience. The authors do present a very

interesting descriptive expos

e of various energy technolo-

gies and innovations of main concern for carbon emissions

across time and space. However, the book’s analytical forte

becomes questionable as troublesome arguments emerge

as, for example, institutions and organizations from conﬂict-

ing social forces are viewed as part of the same cultural

framing, working towards the same “ecomodernity”.

Ultimately, the study object of the book becomes yet

another story of energy technologies, and together with

a hazy understanding, and analysis, of change, the au-

thors reproduce the very techno-economic positivism they

wanted to avoid. Despite this critique, the book presents

worth-while descriptive historical reviews for those inter-

ested in the broader picture of energy production and the

automobile sector in the regions addressed (i.e., the Eu-

ropean Union, the United States of America, China, and

sub-Saharan Africa). The overarching point of how the “eco-

modernity” presented by the authors would consist of an

interplay between the three cycles is made in a compelling

manner, especially given rich level of detail presented in

each chapter. Furthermore, the authors do not abstain

from acknowledging the role the global economy may have

played in technological development, especially in the case

of photo-voltaics. Finally, I would recommend this book

to readers interested in the data and the details, but not

to those interested in deep academic discussions about

economy and sustainability, and if/how a new champion

may emerge from the battle of modernities.

David Harnesk

Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies, and Lund

University Centre of Excellence for the Integration of the

Social and Natural Dimensions of Sustainability, Lund, Swe-

den; E-Mail: [email protected]