How Socio-Technical Landscape Can Innovate Energy Transitions in Cities? A Conceptual Framework
- April 2, 2020
- Posted by: RSIS
- Categories: IJRISS, Social Science
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue III, March 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186
How Socio-Technical Landscape Can Innovate Energy Transitions in Cities? A Conceptual Framework
Usman Sattar
Department of Social Work, College of Law and Political Science, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua (321004), Zhejiang, P. R. China
Abstract—This paper provides a conceptual frame that how socio-technical landscape components of the Multilevel Perspective can stimulate energy transitions in cities by taking a case of Beijing city. It adopts a theoretical coding method with the help of a methodical literature review to define the main sectors of energy consumption/carbon emission and socio-technical landscape components in a coherent way to support energy transitions. The recurring strands of the main sources of carbon emission—local and regional transportation, coal combustion, industrial production, fugitive dust, and others, are described first. Lately, the main factors of socio-technical landscape—political support, macro-economic trends, spatial structure, demographic trends, media, and societal values, are described as a framework of multi-sectoral cooperative interplay to minimize energy consumption, carbon emission, and improving the air quality of the city. The study intends to illuminate the pathways of energy transitions for urban planners and policy makers to make our urban localities even more resilient and a sustainable.
Keywords—urban planning, innovative landscape, sustainable development, energy consumption
I. INTRODUCTION
Climate change issues are alarming the global world that we develop our societies in a way that we could sustain it in the long run. Our development patterns and population dynamics are posing mounting threats for all of us. People are shrinking in urban areas all over the word. That’s why cities are important turning points to realize sustainable development agenda [1]. Our population increase and urban development patterns especially in the developing world can play a decisive role in leading us toward a sustainable future. Beijing is the capital city of the fastest growing economy in the world—the People’s Republic of China. This study takes
Beijing as a case, and studies its main sources of energy consumption and carbon emission sectors. Furthermore, it takes a panorama view of the emission sectors with the help of a theoretical lens—multilevel perspective (MLP)[2]. The study only studies the landscape components of the Beijing city and defines that how mainstream six components of the MLP can potentially reduces carbon emission from six main sectors of carbon emission in cities.
