Visioning a Sustainable Energy Future
The Case of Urban Food-Growing
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7417866 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robert Biel (0000-0003-0558-9232, University College London, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 183-202 |
| Publication date | 2014-07-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Theory Culture & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0263-2764 • E-ISSN: 1460-3616 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0263276414536624 |
| OpenAlex | W1989356887 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 22 |
This article outlines a future where society re-energizes itself, in the sense both of recapturing creative dynamism and of applying creativity to meeting physical energy needs. Both require us to embrace self-organizing properties, whether in nature or society. The author critically appraises backcasting as a methodology for visioning, arguing that backcasting’s potential for radical, outside-the-box thinking is restricted unless it contemplates a break with class society, connects with existing grassroots struggles (notably over land) and dialogues with the utopian socialist tradition. The article develops a case study of food, starting from the physical parameters of combating the entropy expressed in the loss of soil structure, and applies this to urban food-growing. Drawing upon ‘real utopias’ of existing practice, the author proposes a threefold categorization – subsistence plots, an urban forest, and an ultra-high productivity sector – and emphasizes the emergent properties of such a complex system characterized by the ‘free energy’ of societal self-organization
Backcasting · Creativity · Dynamism · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Futures studies · Grassroots · Political science · Sociology · Subsistence agriculture · Sustainability · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Computer Science · Law · Artificial Intelligence · Ecology
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Walking together by asking questions
Fairtrade, Food Security and Globalization
Food systems narratives in Colombia
The Problem of Energy
Dirt
Order out of Chaos
Energy backcasting A proposed method of policy analysis
Soil Carbon Sequestration Impacts on Global Climate Change and Food Security
Solutions for a cultivated planet
Indigenous Agricultural Revolution
The Entropy of Capitalism
The Green Revolution Revisited
The allotment; its landscape and culture
Past and future of backcasting
Energy Strategy
Utopianism and Marxism
The Ecological Revolution
Green grabs and biochar
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,5 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2026 (13) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |