About this Research Topic
This Research Topic focuses on the contested, varied and dynamic relationship between urban energy poverty and positive energy districts. The former refers to a lack of access to essential energy services in cities, while the latter highlights the multi-scalar spaces and places of sustainability interventions in urban infrastructure. We invite contributions from a wide range of urban contexts, social science disciplines and novel interdisciplinary methodological approaches that address:
• The impact of community, block and sub-urban scale renewable energy initiatives on diverse urban residents and socio-spatial patterns of involvement;
• Various targets for low-carbon urban transformation mobilized by municipalities and other actors and the concomitant implications for informal urbanisms and social inclusion;
• Synergies and trade-offs between urban retrofits to enhance energy efficiency in the built environment and trends on real estate markets in diverse urban contexts;
• The effects of smart city initiatives on urban energy services such as public lighting, mobility and energy efficient social housing as part of urban sustainability goals;
• Energy technologies for participatory environmental monitoring, such as electric and gas smart meters and other sensors, and how they relate to urban social inclusion;
• Relationships between socio-economic indicators (e.g. energy poverty) and low-carbon indicators of energy transition (e.g. carbon budgets) deployed in and by various cities;
• Hybrid governance of urban sustainability transformation by public, private and civil society actors and its implications for energy poverty and low-carbon transitions;
• Varieties of urban energy transition plans (e.g. positive energy districts) and their range of metrics to address informality and social inclusion during low-carbon transformation.
Keywords: Urban Transformation, Energy Poverty, Positive Energy Districts, Governance, Social Inclusion, Urban Energy Poverty, Urban Infrastructure, Renewable Energy, Energy Technologies, Low-Carbon Transitions
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