NUMIES / Who We Are

The Energy and Society Millennium Nucleus (NUMIES) studies the relationships between energy and society in Chile from the perspective of transitions towards sustainability. We understand them as the shift to a decarbonized energy matrix as well as the socio-cultural, regulatory and material configuration of new ways of making a common worlds in front of the planetary crisis challenge.

NUMIES is a research space where researchers from the social sciences and engineering work collaboratively. The associate and assistant researchers who make up NUMIES have addressed the challenges related to the energy transition from different areas, places and intellectual traditions. Young researchers and undergraduate and graduate students are also part of this team, and they will participate in the different researches and activities that the Nucleus carries out. Likewise, it is nourished by an intense international collaboration with research centers from different countries and regions of the planet.

Approach: definitions and principles

We propose an understanding of energy transitions that aims at going beyond the merely technological transformation process. Thus, we understand by transition:

Based on the above, NUMIES articulates its research agenda founded on three principles:

• The energy transition requires an interdisciplinary approach within the social sciences as well as in connection with other ways of producing knowledge -from the natural sciences, engineering, architecture and design, among others (Dendler et al 2012).
• The challenge of transition involves not only producing critical knowledge about ongoing processes, but also developing and critically imagining different courses of action. The traditional retrospective vision of the social sciences must be complemented with a prospective view capable of proposing alternative futures (Urry 2014).
• Studying energy transition processes also requires designing and investigating repair and remediation mechanisms, which means taking charge of the environmental, economic and cultural liabilities left by the coal energy regime (Puig de la Bellacasa 2011).

Objective: The challenge of transitions toward sustainability

The objective of NUMIES is to consolidate a research and intervention agenda on the social and cultural dimensions of the energy transition in Chile. This objective is structured in three action axes.

• Transition policies and conflicts: research on the social and political conflicts that come out from the implementation of renewable energy projects.
• Energy transition governance: analysis of the aspects related to the design and execution of public policies associated with the energy transition.
• Energy transitions and technological change: study of the socio-cultural aspects related to developing and implementing technologies of renewable energies at all levels.

Interdisciplinarity: Doing science plurally

NUMIES aims at consolidating and multiplying the bridges between scientific production and the political and civil society actors which are involved in the implementation of energy transitions. We intend to create technical spaces for debating and communicating as well as open events of citizen discussion through participatory methodologies and different ways.

Investigating the transitions from the South

Chile is currently a privileged case to investigate the possibilities and limitations of energy transitions because of its determined commitment to generating electricity based on non-conventional renewable energies (NCRE). Therefore, Chile emerges as a relevant case for reflection, offering analyses and proposals on transitions from the global South. In the Latin American context, the link between energy development and conflicts with indigenous peoples, the recognition of practices situated at the local level and the need for environmental remediation processes is particularly important due to the damage caused by the current energy production model.

Methodology

The work that is carried out at NUMIES is characterized by a strong interdisciplinary vocation and it is developed according to three types of research activities.