Call for Abstracts

The Energy Cultures Conference 2016 – Sustainable Energy Futures: Understanding Behaviour and Supporting Transitions

The energy sector is facing an uncertain future. The demands of development contrasted with the constraints of global climate change, peak oil, and resource availability underscore the need for a long-term transformation of energy systems. Yet achieving a sustainable energy future will require the action and support of multiple actors across a range of scales. Researchers, policy makers, and industry stakeholders alike are confronting the challenge of restructuring energy systems into more sustainable forms. Historical examples of such transitions are abundant, and often consist of technological innovations, shifts in societal norms, and policy support. The interplay between these, and other change trends, can offer insights into the possibilities of a sustainable energy future, and the ways through which low-carbon transitions can best be supported.

The conference aims to explore research perspectives on energy-related behaviour and its role in transitioning to a sustainable energy future. The conference invites a broad focus on behaviour change that includes households, businesses and governments; energy and mobility; and from single-factor to systemic change.

We invite researchers from all disciplines and sectors to submit extended abstracts that address the conference theme. In particular, we are interested in exploring:

  • How to better understand energy and mobility behaviour amongst homes and businesses
  • How shifts in behaviour can give rise to systemic transitions across entire energy systems
  • How transitions emerge in different geographical, political and cultural contexts, and how theories and understandings of energy transitions vary across these contexts
  • How transitions are driven by top down, bottom up, or middle out processes
  • How theory and practice can inform each other to stimulate a shift to more sustainable energy futures
  • How multiple theoretical perspectives can provide a richer picture to help understand energy transitions
  • Plus other related research topics

Please submit extended abstracts (up to 1000 words excluding references) for peer review. Please avoid the use of discipline-specific jargon, as the conference will attract presenters and audience members from many different disciplines and backgrounds. Download Call For Abstracts

Abstract submission

Please use the Energy Cultures Conference 2016 abstract submission template: Download abstract template Read and follow all instructions. For the purpose of peer review, please list all author(s) details on the title page only.

Extended abstracts should be no longer than 1000 words, excluding references. Include a list of all references at the end of your abstract, please use APA style references with Author and Year in text (e.g. Smith, 1976), or as appropriate Smith (1976). Please refrain from using figures and/or tables in your abstract. Spelling should be in UK/NZ English.

On the title page of the abstract submission template, please indicate whether you would like to give a 15-minute talk or a poster presentation. While we will aim to accommodate your preference, this may not be possible. Some presentations may also be selected to give a 7-minute lighting talk.

Submission is via email to energy.cultures@otago.ac.nz before 18 December 2015.

For additional submission guidance please contact energy.cultures@otago.ac.nz.

Outputs

The intended outputs of the 2016 Energy Cultures Conference include a journal special issue. The organising committee are currently in correspondence with a number of high-impact international journals, and participants will be provided with further details as they become available. We therefore encourage all participants to submit highly developed research.

Timeframe

18 December 2015     Deadline for submission of extended abstracts Download abstract template
01 February 2016        Registration opens
15 February 2016        Authors will be notified of acceptance
01 May 2016                 Deadline for presenters registration
15 May 2016                 Confirmation of final programme
6-7 July 2016                 Conference