Abstract
Although the profile of resilience is growing rapidly, its fundamental character remains unclear. Sociotechnical resilience is rendered further ambiguous by its denial of traditional disciplinary distinctions and tensions with social theory. This chapter identifies and discusses these complexities, and examines how they have been addressed. It finds that systemic portrayals of resilience are particularly well complemented through the situated insights delivered by analysis of the sociotechnical ensembles of interest. A case study of the challenge domestic photovoltaic power (PV) presents to the Australian electricity industry illuminates how established status quo interests can undermine resilience. This clarifies not only the character of disruptive technological challenges but also the requirement for a governmental commitment to resilience as explored in the concluding discussion.
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Notes
- 1.
While “engineering resilience” was the original ecological definition of resilience, more sophisticated ecological notions have been developed, most recently Panarchy (Gunderson and Holling 2002), which recognizes the importance of intra-systemic change, involving not only society but also the many different scales and rates at which changes, and adaptations, occur. Some (e.g. Meerow et al. 2016) have, further, noted how resilience can act as a “boundary object” to which different audiences attribute different meanings!
- 2.
Defined as “complex, integrated systems in which humans are part of nature” (www.resalliance.org/key-concepts accessed 16/3/16), reflecting the ecological priority attaching to their systems ecology viewpoint.
- 3.
Although recently subject to some study (e.g. Stone-Jovicich 2015).
- 4.
Neoliberalism celebrates the autonomous individual of economic theory, complementary to its derision for state power, by devolving as much of that power to individuals as it can, commonly without resources (Hamann 2009), thereby constructing resilience as an individual responsibility (Josepth 2013).
- 5.
This study “sought to understand how community-scale energy and water systems influence community adaptive capacity and resilience to climate change” (2011: 5).
- 6.
A new report by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), mid-2017, while this chapter was being finalized, suggests that positive changes, although many current political interests would oppose them, could be underway (Parkinson 2017c). This is due, in no small part, to AEMO’s new CEO, appointed March 2017, who previously held the position of Chair of the New York State Public Service Commission (NYPSC). NYPSC is internationally recognized for recent innovative regulatory reforms lowering consumer energy costs while emphasising a more resilient and reliable power system, with a focus upon the facilitation of decentralized demand-side power supply options.
- 7.
The status of these challenges in the developing world will not be further discussed in this chapter (but see, for example: Khoury et al. 2016 and www.wri.org/blog/2016/05/rise-urban-energy-prosumer). This is further attested to by both the African Union’s “African Renewable Energy Initiative” (AREI) and France and India’s launch of the “International Solar Alliance” at the UNFCCC’s COP 21, December 2015.
- 8.
This notion of a fundamental systemic change in energy production, and use, is typically considered via the perspective of ‘transition management’ discussed below.
- 9.
See McConnell (2013) for a discussion of solar as a ‘disruptive’ technology.
- 10.
Actor Network Theory is among more the recent manifestations of socio-material theory of specific relevance here, elaborated insightfully by major practitioners such as Bruno Latour and John Law. Muller (2015) is of specific relevance to this discussion.
- 11.
Closely related to Foucault’s dispositif, which places more emphasis upon power/knowledge (see: Braun 2014)
- 12.
Dynamics subject to increasing scholarly attention (e.g. Chilvers and Longhurst 2015).
- 13.
In much of the developing world, discussed in endnote 7 above, electricity systems are, only now, starting to be organized on the basis of the currently available cost effective distributed renewable generation technologies making for very different challenges (See: Healy et al. 2017 for further details).
- 14.
An energy consumer who produces energy has come to be known by this term because they both produce and consume electricity.
- 15.
This was a fairly revolutionary development because the intermittency of the new technologies, which require an ongoing supply of their “fuel” (i.e. the sunshine, wind etc.) to generate power, was effectively rendered unproblematic. Opponents of these changes commonly couch their arguments in terms of a need for “baseload” generation, which is ongoing because their fuel supply, such as coal, is not “intermittent.” Today, such arguments have rapidly become an historical anachronism (Parkinson 2017d).
- 16.
While among the best known, this Tesla product is only one of a number of new, primarily, lithium-ion batteries that have recently come onto the market (ABC 2015). The very rapid evolution of these technologies is shown by the launch of a new Powerwall 2.0 version of these batteries a little less than a year after their initial launch but at about half the price and with double the storage capacity of the initial version (Mountain 2016).
- 17.
With developments over the months since this was originally written only underscoring this, although see endnote 6 above.
- 18.
“Electric power systems embody the physical, intellectual, and symbolic resources of the society that constructs them. Therefore in explaining the changes in the configuration of power systems, the historian must examine the changing resources and aspirations of organizations, groups, and individuals...electric power systems, like so much other technology, are both causes and effects of social change” (Hughes 1983).
- 19.
New prosumer markets have technical challenges beyond the mundane, requiring not only that distributed generation is matched to consumption but also that power quality is adequately maintained across a system, requiring extensive computational and monitoring resources. To date these challenges have been only been successfully met in limited domains although the prevalent technical attitude to them is sanguine (the author, who is a PhD Electrical Engineer, suspects that this confidence is misplaced).
- 20.
While this chapter was drafted in 2016 revisions were made in 2017 and recent developments, detailed by Parkinson (2017a), underline this observation.
- 21.
- 22.
In addition to the identification of a commercial dilemma for the industry, many commentators point out that as customers leave the grid and prices rise, which is occurring, only those least able to afford the new premiums remain utility customers. The commercial industry dilemma has been more broadly recognized and discussed (e.g. The Economist 2017).
- 23.
In which it would take more of a storage, bidirectional role rather than acting simply as a one-way conduit from the sites of electricity production to the sites of electricity consumption.
- 24.
A recent attempt to match this to the interval over which these are paid, currently 30 minutes, which would accelerate battery storage but disadvantage market incumbents, has been put on hold (Parkinson 2016g).
- 25.
While expected to require particularly innovative tariff structures there has been limited experience in implementing these to date. Under current tariff structures some “prosumers” are even paying utilities for electricity that they, themselves, generate (Parkinson 2016e).
- 26.
Although “forms of life” is a term coined by Wittgenstein, it is widely used in Science and Technology Studies to identify the commonly dynamic ways we might live with and through technologies, with, in this case, those associated with electricity particularly significant in shaping the character and content of everyday life.
- 27.
See, for example, www.organisationalresilience.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx
- 28.
Not only are the emissions intensive and, more broadly, environmentally damaging aspects of conventional industry, but also the socially divisive impacts of the privileging of some over the many.
- 29.
- 30.
Having given rise to many international developments such as the journal Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions (www.journals.elsevier.com/environmental-innovation-and-societal-transitions/).
- 31.
Applied to Dutch energy policy at the end of the twentieth century (Rotmans et al. 2001).
- 32.
Adaptive Management is a widely recognized environmental method of optimizing sustainability by iteratively adapting to changing conditions over time.
- 33.
The other “ideal-typical” approach being “governance on the outside,” which assumes an objectively knowable sociotechnical system (Smith and Stirling 2007).
- 34.
The author’s current institutional affiliation to Environmental Humanities is an exemplary example. One founding principle of this new discipline being the annulment of human exceptionalism, which is a central feature of the traditional humanities.
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Healy, S. (2018). Sociotechnical Resilience: From Recovery to Adaptation and Beyond, the Journey So Far…. In: Amir, S. (eds) The Sociotechnical Constitution of Resilience. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8509-3_3
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