Module GEOG3971: GEOGRAPHIES OF ENERGY TRANSITION

Department: Geography

GEOG3971: GEOGRAPHIES OF ENERGY TRANSITION

Prerequisites

• GEOG2472 Social Research in Geography

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• GEOG3501 Berlin: Culture, Politics and Contestation; GEOG3581 Territory and Geopolitics; GEOG3491 Alpine Landscapes and Processes; GEOG3691 Iceland: Field Research in Glacial Environments; GEOG3521 The Arctic; GEOG3731 Dynamic Mountain Environments; GEOG3701 Mountain Hazards; GEOG3551 Chicago: Sites of Global Change

Aims

• To critically explore the geographies of energy transition through a week of September field research in a Northern European region, alongside instruction in Durham (an intensive June instruction week and supporting activities in Term 1 following return from the field trip).
• To introduce students to different ways in which energy transitions redefine societies’ relationships to energy, and how the issues and challenges of energy transition vary geographically.
• To develop and apply diverse geographical perspectives to understand the multiple dimensions of energy transition across space and time, including issues of resource extraction and conflict, the development and replacement of energy infrastructures and access to energy services and their consumption.
• To develop students’ ‘energy literacy’ (i.e. familiarity with terms, concepts, actors and issues) and encourage critical engagement with contemporary energy issues.
• To examine through field-based research the multi-scalar and geographically uneven character of energy transitions in a Northern European region (Rotterdam and the surrounding Rhine Estuary region in the Netherlands).

Content

• This module is structured around the theme of energy transition. Transition implying some form of change over time in the ways in which energy is captured, transformed, accessed, distributed and/or governed provides a framework for examining the range of challenges associated with contemporary energy use, the actors driving change and the structures and institutions that may resist it, and the potentially competing objectives of energy affordability, energy security and responses to climate change.
• The module focuses on the geographical dimensions of energy transitions across space and time, exploring how the histories of energy production and consumption shape its present and possible futures as well as how energy transitions in one region (Europe) are tied into transitions in the extraction, production, consumption and wasting of energy materials and systems elsewhere. It will explore how new drivers for a ‘green transition’ in energy systems in Europe are changing how people live and work with energy, re-working socio-spatial and political ecological relations within cities and regions and generating new patterns of uneven development and scalar configurations at national and international levels.
• Lectures and workshops introduce students to conceptual and case material, providing an empirical and theoretical toolkit for students to critically analyse energy transitions. Field research in Northern Europe will allow students to examine the multiple dimensions and geographies of energy transition in a diverse setting where histories and future promises of energy transition collide, and to understand first-hand the connections among transitions at different scales (national, urban, community/household).
• The module draws on the research and teaching interests of human geography staff around energy, climate, finance and urban infrastructure and explores their intersection in the context of Europe as well as their connection to other regions globally. The module seeks to capitalise on these intersections and potential synergies through team-teaching in Durham (lectures may involve contributions by more than one member of staff) and co-investigation and shared learning among staff and students while in the field.
• Lectures may cover the following exemplary themes:
• 1. Energy landscapes through time: materialities, spaces, flows
• 2. Political economies of Europe’s energy transitions
• 3. Undoing high carbon energy cultural economies
• 4. Configuring low carbon energy transitions
• 5. Energy justice across sites and scales
• Module workshops will introduce the theme and regional case, assemble research groups and brainstorm research ideas and help students develop research proposals.
• The field course will consist of a week in the Rhine Estuary (centred on Rotterdam) or the Oresund region (centred on Copenhagen, Denmark and Malmö, Sweden).

Learning Outcomes

• On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
• Critically evaluate the concept of energy transition from diverse geographical perspectives
• Demonstrate an informed understanding, supplemented by the students’ own research, of the connections and potential tensions between energy affordability, security & climate change
• Demonstrate an understanding of how energy transitions vary over time and space and the differential challenges of ‘undoing’ high carbon economies and configuring ‘low carbon’ transitions
• Understand how energy underpins the geographies of daily life at a range of scales and develop the capacity to reflect on their meaning for our own contexts and decisions
• Show an appreciation for the dynamic and uneven spatiality of energy transitions, and how these manifest in a Northern European context

• Evaluation and critical application of geographical concepts and theories to understand contemporary issues related to energy transitions and their place in the global economy
• Planning, executing and reporting geographical research
• Collecting, interpreting & synthesising different types of quantitative & qualitative geographical data

• Problem formulation, research design and data generation
• Critical analysis and interpretation of data and text
• Ability to learn in familiar and unfamiliar settings
• Capacity to evaluate academic performance of self and others
• Effective written and verbal communication
• Identification, retrieval, assessment and synthesis of information from a wide range of sources
• Team working, involving recognition and respect for the viewpoints of others
• Time management and effective organisational skills

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Lectures will introduce students to concepts, approaches and cases in pursuit of the module’s aims and objectives. Student learning will be assisted by reading lists, links to external sources and summary PowerPoint slides.
• Workshops and tutorials will facilitate the module’s aims and provide an important intermediary step between lectures (students as recipients of information) and field research (students as co-producers of knowledge). Workshops and tutorials provide an opportunity to discuss and develop ideas covered in the lectures and to apply these in the design of a research problem, as well as, in the final workshop, a forum for student groups to deliver their summative presentation.
• The Durham-based field activity on Durham Energyscapes will link energy transitions in the Rotterdam/Rhine Estuary field site to similar experiences in Durham, and help student groups gain practice in undertaking and presenting research together.
• Field research in Northern Europe will further student understanding of conceptual approaches to energy transition and explore how they can be applied to understand energy capture, transformation, distribution, access and governance at different scales and in different contexts. It will also provide experience in project design, research and analysis, while developing student individual and group working skills.
• By way of formative assessment, oral presentations in the Durham Energyscapes activity and during the field trip, the outline research project proposal submitted by research groups before travel to the field, tutorials, drop-in office hours and the optional pre-field online workshop and other check-ins in the field will assess students’ skills of research design and implementation along with the ability to communicate a research ‘problem’ and focus and to respond to questions. Following return from the field site, the final lecture, workshop and tutorial staff during Term 1 of students’ Level 3 year will help them consolidate and finalise their research projects. Feedback on formative assessment will assist students in applying the concepts learned in lectures to real world problems, framing appropriate research questions and selecting suitable research methods prior to, during and following up from implementation in the field.
• For summative assessment, students will develop and deliver a 20-minute group presentation and write a 6-page individual field report on their group project. These will be submitted in a staggered timeline during Term 1 of students’ Level 3 year, following return from the field and further time allotted for students to consolidate projects and respond to feedback. The assessments will evaluate students’ ability to develop research projects, collect and analyse empirical data, interpret and apply theoretical concepts to empirical examples and effectively communicate findings in oral and written form, respectively.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Formative assessment will be provided in the following ways: • During module tutorials, workshops and drop-in office hours; • Following an initial 2-page outline proposal prepared by research project groups and submitted to module teaching staff the week before departure to the field; • During the field trip via tutorial sessions and scheduled check-in opportunities; • Following an initial 15-minute group presentation in the field.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University