Culture, values, lifestyles, and power in energy futures: A critical peer-to-peer vision for renewable energy

Energy is not solely a techno-economic question, but has implications for the whole of society - its culture, values, lifestyles, and power structures. Changes in energy systems affect societies over decades, and long-term social and cultural processes in turn affect energy systems. Thus, energy systems should be studied from sociocultural and futures-oriented perspectives. The purpose of this article is to describe the relationship between energy transitions and social change, and to offer one plausible socio-cultural vision of the era of renewable energy. The article addresses one of the emerging topical areas of energy research - that of rhetoric and sociotechnical imaginaries of energy transitions - surrounding emerging energy systems. Through a literature review, the article first deals with how energy transitions and societal change are related, and then maps out connections between energy and communication technology transitions. It proposes a decentralised peer-to-peer society as an emancipatory and transformative socio-cultural vision of the era of renewable energy systems. Opening up energy futures allows possible and desirable societal futures to be pursued. However, future visions need not be utopian. In order to deal with the possible contradictions of a peer-to-peer future, a critical stance is taken by using the concept of postnormality.