Sören Becker
Biographic Data
| ID | 3721020 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sören Becker |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sören |
| FAMILY NAME | Becker |
| SIGNATURE | BECKER S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9391-7912 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 159 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Peripherien, Konflikte, Transformationen – Perspektiven einer kritischen Energiegeographie
This introduction presents the fields of peripheries, conflicts and transformations as core topics of critical energy geographies. These fields point to different ways how the provision of energy is interwoven with social inequalities and uneven spatial development. Tackling the relations between energy technology and social power, the contributions to this Theme Issue highlight how power and resistance unfold in different spatial contexts and ar…
Neoliberalismus und Austerität. Ansätze einer Zeitdiagnose
Digital urban nature
Within policy and research debates on the smart city, the urban environment has become an arena of contestation. Claims that digitalisation will render the city more resource-efficient are countered by criticism of the tensions between smart and sustainability practices. Little attention has been paid, however, to the role of nature in digitally mediated urban environments. The flora, fauna and habitats of a city are a void in research and policy…
Regionalentwicklung in Ostdeutschland
Regionalentwicklung in Ostdeutschland
Zooming Into the Ecosystem
Open data platforms provide free access to datasets in key areas of urban development. Often provided by the local state, open data platforms constitute a part of smart city strategies worldwide, serving different, potentially contradictory aims, i.e. fostering economic development, enhancing transparency of urban governance and reshaping the relation between citizens and the state. While benefits of open data are often highlighted, recent resear…
Thinking through connections in food and energy transitions
KEYWORDS: Sustainability transitionspatial connectionsspacefood systemsenergy systemsengaged pluralism
Energy democracy as the right to the city
In this paper, we argue that it is generative to link struggles around access to, control over, and the transformation of urban energy systems to the imaginary of the right to the city; and we explore the conceptual, empirical and political contributions of this connection. Our paper starts with two main questions: (1) what do we learn from reading attempts to reclaim urban energy systems from a right to the city perspective? (2) What can this an…
Making sense of remunicipalisation
The increasingly discussed phenomenon of ‘remunicipalisation’ marks a global trend since 2000 for cities to take formerly privatised assets, infrastructure and services back into public ownership. It is most prominent in basic service sectors such as water and energy, but it is also evident in a range of diverse utility and infrastructure areas—from education, health, refuse and other areas of local government. As a reaction to the problems and c…
Community energy and social entrepreneurship
Between coproduction and commons
This article explores new geographies of coproduction emerging in urban energy politics. It analyses processes of remunicipalisation of urban utilities, involving the re-establishment of public ownership with a strong democratic and ecological agenda for governing energy infrastructures, with case studies of the German cities of Berlin and Hamburg. Seeking ways of understanding these developments which transcend conventional binaries, such as pub…
El arraigo local en proyectos energéticos comunitarios. Una perspectiva de emprendimiento social
Recientemente, han surgido un número creciente de proyectos energéticos comunitarios, que reflejan diversas configuraciones socio-técnicas en el sector energético. Este artículo se basa en un estudio empírico que examina diferentes tipos de proyectos energéticos comunitarios como las cooperativas energéticas, las empresas de servicios públicos y otras iniciativas de orientación empresarial en toda la Unión Europea. Basado en un análisis en profun…
Energy democracy
Energy is an emerging topic of interest in human geography, and so is the study of alternative approaches to energy provision and governance. These alternatives are often considered manifestations of energy democracy, a notion that has become prominent in energy‐related activism. This paper connects alternative approaches towards novel, sustainable, and more democratic forms of energy provision to develop a typology of the practices and politics …
Rescaling Energy? Räumliche Neuordnungen in der deutschen Energiewende
The German energy transition is not only characterized by wide technological changes but also by spatial restructuring. The decentralization of energy supply potentially increases the importance of the regional or local scale. The Anglo-American debate on the Politics of Scale addresses the production and transformation of scale while energy issues have not yet been systematically addressed. This paper combines the theoretical paradigms of scale,…
Social movements and urban energy policy
Whose energy transition is it, anyway? Organisation and ownership of the Energiewende in villages, cities and regions
As one of the most ambitious national energy transition initiatives worldwide, the German Energiewende is attracting a huge amount of attention globally in both policy and research circles. The paper explores the implementation of Germany's energy transition through the lens of organisation and ownership in urban and regional contexts. Following a summary of the principal institutional challenges of the Energiewende at local and regional levels t…
Collective ownership in renewable energy and opportunities for sustainable degrowth
Remunicipalization in German cities
After two decades of widespread privatization, German municipalities have started to re-purchase privatized companies. At the same time, social movements are campaigning for remunicipalization, promoting it as a means of achieving greater urban democracy, though these objectives are often divergent from those of municipalities concerned with reasserting local state autonomy. With reference to Berlin, the paper discusses how remunicipalization cam…
Collective ownership in renewable energy and opportunities for sustainable degrowth
Remunicipalization in German cities
After two decades of widespread privatization, German municipalities have started to re-purchase privatized companies. At the same time, social movements are campaigning for remunicipalization, promoting it as a means of achieving greater urban democracy, though these objectives are often divergent from those of municipalities concerned with reasserting local state autonomy. With reference to Berlin, the paper discusses how remunicipalization cam…
Making sense of remunicipalisation
The increasingly discussed phenomenon of ‘remunicipalisation’ marks a global trend since 2000 for cities to take formerly privatised assets, infrastructure and services back into public ownership. It is most prominent in basic service sectors such as water and energy, but it is also evident in a range of diverse utility and infrastructure areas—from education, health, refuse and other areas of local government. As a reaction to the problems and c…
Energy democracy
Energy is an emerging topic of interest in human geography, and so is the study of alternative approaches to energy provision and governance. These alternatives are often considered manifestations of energy democracy, a notion that has become prominent in energy‐related activism. This paper connects alternative approaches towards novel, sustainable, and more democratic forms of energy provision to develop a typology of the practices and politics …
Social movements and urban energy policy
Digital urban nature
Within policy and research debates on the smart city, the urban environment has become an arena of contestation. Claims that digitalisation will render the city more resource-efficient are countered by criticism of the tensions between smart and sustainability practices. Little attention has been paid, however, to the role of nature in digitally mediated urban environments. The flora, fauna and habitats of a city are a void in research and policy…
Energy democracy as the right to the city
In this paper, we argue that it is generative to link struggles around access to, control over, and the transformation of urban energy systems to the imaginary of the right to the city; and we explore the conceptual, empirical and political contributions of this connection. Our paper starts with two main questions: (1) what do we learn from reading attempts to reclaim urban energy systems from a right to the city perspective? (2) What can this an…
Rescaling Energy? Räumliche Neuordnungen in der deutschen Energiewende
The German energy transition is not only characterized by wide technological changes but also by spatial restructuring. The decentralization of energy supply potentially increases the importance of the regional or local scale. The Anglo-American debate on the Politics of Scale addresses the production and transformation of scale while energy issues have not yet been systematically addressed. This paper combines the theoretical paradigms of scale,…
El arraigo local en proyectos energéticos comunitarios. Una perspectiva de emprendimiento social
Recientemente, han surgido un número creciente de proyectos energéticos comunitarios, que reflejan diversas configuraciones socio-técnicas en el sector energético. Este artículo se basa en un estudio empírico que examina diferentes tipos de proyectos energéticos comunitarios como las cooperativas energéticas, las empresas de servicios públicos y otras iniciativas de orientación empresarial en toda la Unión Europea. Basado en un análisis en profun…
Whose energy transition is it, anyway? Organisation and ownership of the Energiewende in villages, cities and regions
As one of the most ambitious national energy transition initiatives worldwide, the German Energiewende is attracting a huge amount of attention globally in both policy and research circles. The paper explores the implementation of Germany's energy transition through the lens of organisation and ownership in urban and regional contexts. Following a summary of the principal institutional challenges of the Energiewende at local and regional levels t…
Collective ownership in renewable energy and opportunities for sustainable degrowth
Remunicipalization in German cities
After two decades of widespread privatization, German municipalities have started to re-purchase privatized companies. At the same time, social movements are campaigning for remunicipalization, promoting it as a means of achieving greater urban democracy, though these objectives are often divergent from those of municipalities concerned with reasserting local state autonomy. With reference to Berlin, the paper discusses how remunicipalization cam…
Social movements and urban energy policy
Community energy and social entrepreneurship
Between coproduction and commons
This article explores new geographies of coproduction emerging in urban energy politics. It analyses processes of remunicipalisation of urban utilities, involving the re-establishment of public ownership with a strong democratic and ecological agenda for governing energy infrastructures, with case studies of the German cities of Berlin and Hamburg. Seeking ways of understanding these developments which transcend conventional binaries, such as pub…
El arraigo local en proyectos energéticos comunitarios. Una perspectiva de emprendimiento social
Recientemente, han surgido un número creciente de proyectos energéticos comunitarios, que reflejan diversas configuraciones socio-técnicas en el sector energético. Este artículo se basa en un estudio empírico que examina diferentes tipos de proyectos energéticos comunitarios como las cooperativas energéticas, las empresas de servicios públicos y otras iniciativas de orientación empresarial en toda la Unión Europea. Basado en un análisis en profun…
Energy democracy
Energy is an emerging topic of interest in human geography, and so is the study of alternative approaches to energy provision and governance. These alternatives are often considered manifestations of energy democracy, a notion that has become prominent in energy‐related activism. This paper connects alternative approaches towards novel, sustainable, and more democratic forms of energy provision to develop a typology of the practices and politics …
Rescaling Energy? Räumliche Neuordnungen in der deutschen Energiewende
The German energy transition is not only characterized by wide technological changes but also by spatial restructuring. The decentralization of energy supply potentially increases the importance of the regional or local scale. The Anglo-American debate on the Politics of Scale addresses the production and transformation of scale while energy issues have not yet been systematically addressed. This paper combines the theoretical paradigms of scale,…
Making sense of remunicipalisation
The increasingly discussed phenomenon of ‘remunicipalisation’ marks a global trend since 2000 for cities to take formerly privatised assets, infrastructure and services back into public ownership. It is most prominent in basic service sectors such as water and energy, but it is also evident in a range of diverse utility and infrastructure areas—from education, health, refuse and other areas of local government. As a reaction to the problems and c…
Regionalentwicklung in Ostdeutschland
Regionalentwicklung in Ostdeutschland
Zooming Into the Ecosystem
Open data platforms provide free access to datasets in key areas of urban development. Often provided by the local state, open data platforms constitute a part of smart city strategies worldwide, serving different, potentially contradictory aims, i.e. fostering economic development, enhancing transparency of urban governance and reshaping the relation between citizens and the state. While benefits of open data are often highlighted, recent resear…
Thinking through connections in food and energy transitions
KEYWORDS: Sustainability transitionspatial connectionsspacefood systemsenergy systemsengaged pluralism
Energy democracy as the right to the city
In this paper, we argue that it is generative to link struggles around access to, control over, and the transformation of urban energy systems to the imaginary of the right to the city; and we explore the conceptual, empirical and political contributions of this connection. Our paper starts with two main questions: (1) what do we learn from reading attempts to reclaim urban energy systems from a right to the city perspective? (2) What can this an…
Neoliberalismus und Austerität. Ansätze einer Zeitdiagnose
Digital urban nature
Within policy and research debates on the smart city, the urban environment has become an arena of contestation. Claims that digitalisation will render the city more resource-efficient are countered by criticism of the tensions between smart and sustainability practices. Little attention has been paid, however, to the role of nature in digitally mediated urban environments. The flora, fauna and habitats of a city are a void in research and policy…
Peripherien, Konflikte, Transformationen – Perspektiven einer kritischen Energiegeographie
This introduction presents the fields of peripheries, conflicts and transformations as core topics of critical energy geographies. These fields point to different ways how the provision of energy is interwoven with social inequalities and uneven spatial development. Tackling the relations between energy technology and social power, the contributions to this Theme Issue highlight how power and resistance unfold in different spatial contexts and ar…
Political science (15 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance (11 works) · Politics (9 works) · Economics (8 works) · Economic system (6 works) · Geography (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy (6 works) · Public Administration (5 works)