1,721,043 research outputs found
La dimensione sociale della transizione energetica. Prospettive teoriche e applicazioni
No full textLa transizione energetica, ben oltre gli aspetti tecnici e organizzativi, è un processo di trasformazione radicale del nostro sistema sociale ed economico, che investe la società nel suo insieme. Sebbene la necessità di abbandonare le fonti di energia fossili in favore di un
più ampio impiego delle fonti rinnovabili sia un tema sempre più centrale dell’agenda pubblica, la complessità dei problemi di ordine sociale, culturale, economico, istituzionale, politico (e geopolitico) rimane spesso sullo sfondo così come la necessità di rimettere
in discussione consolidati equilibri, credenze, pratiche e modelli organizzativi e di distribuzione del potere.
La transizione energetica è quindi un oggetto vasto che richiede alle scienze sociali uno sforzo di analisi e ricerca rivolto alla comprensione e alla definizione di appropriate strategie di accompagnamento dei processi di trasformazione. Vastità rispetto alla quale questo volume offre contributi teorici e applicativi che tentano di affrontare alcuni temi rilevanti della transizione con approcci di approfondimento diversi per presupposti e metodi. I capitoli che lo compongono sono un auspicabile punto di partenza per un consolidamento delle competenze sociologiche in campo energetico. Competenze di cui, ne siamo certi, ci sarà molto bisogno nei prossimi anni
Local production of fruits and vegetables: the need for a revised definition?
No full textAmong the characteristics that contribute to define consumers food preferences, localness has a prominent role both in terms of attractiveness for consumption and in terms of sustainability of the food supply chain. Notwithstanding this relevance, a clear and shared concept of what can be considered as local production is still object of debate and the current most shared definition, based on the literature, is a mixture of distance and sustainability concerns. This contribution is aimed at providing some evidence about the effectiveness of this definition under the assumption that its refinement may play a crucial role in supporting the exploitation of localness' potential both from the policy and from the market sides. Whit this aim, a questionnaire was administered to almost 1200 consumers recruited in street markets and MMR (Mass Market Retailers) during one year in order to get some information about what people know about local production of fruits and vegetables and what are the actual motivations that drive them in purchasing local food. By applying a mixed methodology, typologies of consumers have been created on the basis of their levels of theoretical and practical awareness about local production. It clearly results that the current definition lacks of effectiveness, as consumers show an almost perfect Independence between their knowledge and their actions. A claim for a more exhaustive and practical definition of local production should be made
Collective Action Initiatives as a Tool for a Peaceful Energy Transition
No full textIn recent years, collective action initiatives in the energy field, such as energy communities and cooperatives, have been gaining relevance both in the policy and in the social research domains as primary actors of energy transition. [...
A District Heating Socio-Technical System Approaching the Energy Transition: Issues of Energy Data Flows at the Urban Level
No full textThis chapter describes the results of a sociological investigation carried out within an EU-funded project. The project was aimed at creating a tool to visualise and compute energy data at an urban district level, with the broader aim to optimise the local district heating (DH) network’s distribution policies. This chapter identifies the features of the main categories of actors (from the DH operator to final users) having a role within that network. Special attention is paid to the identification of the barriers and frictions preventing a stronger collaboration and communication among these actors to happen. It is argued that the identification and resolution, in situated and complex socio-technical systems, of these non-strictly-technical problems may be, at least in some cases, a pre-requisite for any ICT-based solution to deploy its full potential
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