Power Shift
Keywords for a New Politics of Energy
Will be published approx. on 30. June 2026
Book
Hardback
296 pages
978-1-959000-51-8 (ISBN)
Description
Power Shift traces recent social and cultural shifts in how we understand and imagine energy, the environment, and the challenges of global warming. Across the globe, the need to transition to renewables has become the guiding reality of our energy present and future, despite continuing resistance to change. But what does this moment of energy transition look like for those struggling to make it happen in a way that benefits every individual and all communities?
Featuring brief essays on 101 key terms by scholars, artists, and activists from around the world and across disciplines, Power Shift offers an expansive, kaleidoscopic guide to the history of petromodernity, recent technological and social developments, and pathways to new energy futures. The book offers new insights into the emergent politics of energy, contrasting today's environmental and climate movements with the geopolitical contests of the Cold War era. It explores the still unfolding story of energy transition by focusing on the ongoing struggles of communities and individuals against decisions made by corporations, governments, and international organizations.
Featuring brief essays on 101 key terms by scholars, artists, and activists from around the world and across disciplines, Power Shift offers an expansive, kaleidoscopic guide to the history of petromodernity, recent technological and social developments, and pathways to new energy futures. The book offers new insights into the emergent politics of energy, contrasting today's environmental and climate movements with the geopolitical contests of the Cold War era. It explores the still unfolding story of energy transition by focusing on the ongoing struggles of communities and individuals against decisions made by corporations, governments, and international organizations.
Reviews / Votes
"We urgently need Power Shift if we are to find our way forward toward a decarbonized future." -David E. Nye, author of Seven Sublimes and Consuming Power: A Social History of American EnergiesMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Morganstown
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
1 image
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-959000-51-8 (9781959000518)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Imre Szeman is director of the Institute for Environment, Conservation, and Sustainability and professor of human geography at the University of Toronto Scarborough. He is the author of books such as On Petrocultures: Globalization, Culture, and Energy and Futures of the Sun.
Jennifer Wenzel is professor in the department of English and comparative literature and the department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African studies at Columbia University. Her books include The Disposition of Nature: Environmental Crisis and World Literature and Bulletproof: Afterlives of Anti-colonial Prophecy in South Africa and Beyond.
Jennifer Wenzel is professor in the department of English and comparative literature and the department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African studies at Columbia University. Her books include The Disposition of Nature: Environmental Crisis and World Literature and Bulletproof: Afterlives of Anti-colonial Prophecy in South Africa and Beyond.
Content
List of Figures
Foreword
David E. Nye
How to Use This Book
Introduction
Imre Szeman and Jennifer Wenzel
2040
What genre will the future be?
Philomena Polefrone
Abandoned
Who is tending to the present?
Liz Harmer
Action
What becomes possible when climate action fails?
Stephen Collis
Africa
Energy for whom and at what cost?
Erin Dean and Kristin D. Phillips
Air Conditioning
Has air conditioning become a technology of citizenship?
Anushree Gupta and Aalok Khandekar
Airplane
Why might we still need to fly?
Parke Wilde
Alberta
How many nuclear bombs does it take to develop an oil field?
Jeremy J. Schmidt
Animals
How do animals organize?
Jaimey Hamilton Faris
Art
How are art and energy related?
Carolyn Fornoff
Autonomy
Why do we want energy autonomy?
Darin Barney
Bankrupt
Is bankruptcy the crisis we need?
Caleb Wellum
Battery
Can batteries foster a radically just energy transition?
Isaac Thornley
Behavior
Why do appeals to values usually fail to change behavior?
Stephane La Branche
Black
What are the Black politics of energy?
Walter Gordon
Blockade
Why are blockades an essential form of climate action?
Joshua Clover, Deedee Chao, and Emily Rich
Carbon Management
Is carbon management a moral imperative or a moral hazard?
Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow
Civil Disobedience
What rules must be broken to build a better world?
Alicia Massie
Class
Why is climate change a class issue?
Valerie Uher
Clean
What does clean energy really mean?
Goekce Guenel
Commons
What forms of governance could solve the tragedy of the commons?
Alfonso Giuliani
Communication
What are effective strategies for climate communication?
Andrew Revkin
Community
Is it still possible to trust other people?
Darren Fleet
Coronavirus
What does the coronavirus reveal about the politics of climate crisis?
Helen Petrovsky
Corporation
Will an energy transition help fossil fuel companies?
Cameron Hu
Cuba
What can Cuba teach us about climate action?
Andrew Pendakis
Cycling
Is cycling a solution?
Stacey Balkan
Decolonization
What can OPEC teach us about the link between energy and decolonization?
Sanaz Sohrabi
Degrowth
Is degrowth inevitable?
Dominic Boyer
Democracy
To save the planet, do we need more democracy, or less?
Robert Danisch
Design
What does design make possible?
Keller Easterling
Development
Can development be green?
Siddharth Sareen
Digital
How does the digital reshape the material realm?
Shane Denson
Documentary
Why is uncertainty useful?
Thomas Pringle
Economy
Is economic expertise important?
Kylie Benton-Connell
Education
How should energy educators respond to youth climate activism?
Carrie Karsgaard
Electricity
How does electricity organize society?
Daniela Russ
Evidence
How is climate evidence used?
James Wilt
Expert
What counts as effective climate expertise?
Shane Gunster
Extinction
Is there a relation between energy and extinction?
Ashley Dawson
Family
What is the environmental future of the family?
Eva-Lynn Jagoe
Farm
Whose muscles power our food system?
Emily Pawley
Finance
Can we create an economy based on care?
Max Haiven
Fire/Bushfire
What can we learn from fire?
Meg Samuelson
Gaslighting
How has gaslighting circumscribed our environmental imagination?
Grace Franklin
Gender
Why is gender important to energy transition?
Petra Tschakert
Geoengineering
Is geoengineering inevitable?
Drew Pendergrass
Globalization
How does energy matter to globalization?
Tanner Mirrlees
Green New Deal
Will the Green New Deal save us from extinction?
Todd Dufresne
Greta
Why is intersectional agility Greta Thunberg's rhetorical superpower?
Sheena Wilson
Habit
What kinds of friction can disrupt the status quo?
Rhys Williams
India
Can there be a just transition in India?
Swaralipi Nandi
Indigenous
How are Indigenous and extraction related?
Deena Rymhs
Indigenous Activism
What is the power of radical care?
Amber Hickey
Industrial Revolution
What does a focus on jobs mean for energy transition?
Cara Daggett
IPCC
What can the IPCC tell us about the relationship between knowledge and action?
Marcela da Silveira Feital and Jessica O'Reilly
Japan
Why do fears of energy scarcity obstruct energy transition?
Hiroki Shin
Justice
What kind of justice is energy justice?
Pauline Destree and Sarah O'Brien
Keep It in the Ground
How can we build momentum to keep fossil fuels in the ground?
Angela Carter
Law
How can we change the law to prevent the climate crisis?
Michael B. Gerrard
Lifestyle
Are lifestyle changes a waste of time?
Mark Simpson
Local
How do local climate politics work best?
Brian Cozen and Danielle Endres
Mining
Why are the ways that we imagine mining important?
Gianfranco Selgas
Music
How are listening and energy related?
Sherry Lee and Emily MacCallum
Nationalism
What is the impact of transition on nationalism?
Zeynep Oguz
Natural Gas
Can natural gas be made visible, or viable?
John Szabo
Neoextractivism
What comes after neoextractivism?
Donald V. Kingsbury
Net Zero
Do we really want to live in a net-zero world?
Mijin Cha
Nonlinear
Can nonlinear imaginative practices help us survive nonlinear catastrophes?
Katy Didden
Normal
What will be normal after fossil fuels?
Stephanie LeMenager
North Dakota
How does oil extraction reshape space and time?
Kyle Conway
Online
When we are online, what lines are we on?
Anne Pasek
Organize
Can the master's tools dismantle the master's house?
Zainab Ashraf, Rachel Krueger, Guy Brodsky, Lesley Johnston, and Joy Hutchinson
Paris Agreement
Does the Paris Agreement still matter?
Amy Janzwood
Permafrost
What do you do when the ground starts to melt beneath your feet?
Brigt Dale
Pipeline
Why is opposition to pipelines important?
Kai Bosworth
Planet
What happens to politics on an increasingly unlivable planet?
Leah Aronowsky
Populism
What can energy politics learn from populism?
Rodrigo Nunes
Protest
Why is protection more important than protest in Indigenous struggles?
Kimberly Skye Richards
Renewable
What do renewables renew?
Marianna Dudley
Resource
Can waste serve as a resource for energy transition?
Kesha Fevrier and Anna Zalik
Retrofit
What does it mean to breathe life into buildings?
Fallon Samuels Aidoo and Daniel A. Barber
Sabotage
Can sabotage ever be more than a romantic gesture?
Ted Hamilton
Scale
What if scale were about equity rather than magnitude?
Cymene Howe
Scales
What can the human voice tell us about the scale of climate change?
Lisa Moore
Scenario Planning
Is the future a waste of time?
Josefin Wangel
Science
Do scientists believe that science matters?
Adam Sobel
Settler Colonialism
How can modern energy systems be indigenized?
S. Awasis
Shipping
What would actual free shipping look like?
Christiaan De Beukelaer
Solar Farm
Can solar farms foster energy justice, instead of obstructing it?
Dustin Mulvaney
Solidarity
How can solidarity catalyze energy democracy?
Ana Isabel Baptista
Sport
Can sport be untangled from oil?
Graeme Macdonald
Storytelling
What can storytelling really do?
Misty Matthews-Roper
Sustainability
Does sustainability's popularity indicate the failure of environmentalism?
Stephanie Foote
Trans-
What is trans- about transition?
Emerson Cram
Transitions
If transition is inevitable, will it be just?
Matthew S. Henry
Treaty
How can treaties help states transition away from fossil fuels?
Carlos Larrea, Bhushan Tuladhar, and Mohamed Adow
Vegan
What does transition look like on your plate?
Allisa Ali and Jordan B. Kinder
Waste
What is at stake in using waste for energy?
Aarti Latkar and Aalok Khandekar
Water
How can microbe metabolism foster sustainable infrastructures?
Melody Jue
Wind
What color is the wind?
David McDermott Hughes
Youth
Why is youth culture indispensable to energy transition?
Derek Gladwin
Acknowledgments
Contributors
Alternative Index
Foreword
David E. Nye
How to Use This Book
Introduction
Imre Szeman and Jennifer Wenzel
2040
What genre will the future be?
Philomena Polefrone
Abandoned
Who is tending to the present?
Liz Harmer
Action
What becomes possible when climate action fails?
Stephen Collis
Africa
Energy for whom and at what cost?
Erin Dean and Kristin D. Phillips
Air Conditioning
Has air conditioning become a technology of citizenship?
Anushree Gupta and Aalok Khandekar
Airplane
Why might we still need to fly?
Parke Wilde
Alberta
How many nuclear bombs does it take to develop an oil field?
Jeremy J. Schmidt
Animals
How do animals organize?
Jaimey Hamilton Faris
Art
How are art and energy related?
Carolyn Fornoff
Autonomy
Why do we want energy autonomy?
Darin Barney
Bankrupt
Is bankruptcy the crisis we need?
Caleb Wellum
Battery
Can batteries foster a radically just energy transition?
Isaac Thornley
Behavior
Why do appeals to values usually fail to change behavior?
Stephane La Branche
Black
What are the Black politics of energy?
Walter Gordon
Blockade
Why are blockades an essential form of climate action?
Joshua Clover, Deedee Chao, and Emily Rich
Carbon Management
Is carbon management a moral imperative or a moral hazard?
Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow
Civil Disobedience
What rules must be broken to build a better world?
Alicia Massie
Class
Why is climate change a class issue?
Valerie Uher
Clean
What does clean energy really mean?
Goekce Guenel
Commons
What forms of governance could solve the tragedy of the commons?
Alfonso Giuliani
Communication
What are effective strategies for climate communication?
Andrew Revkin
Community
Is it still possible to trust other people?
Darren Fleet
Coronavirus
What does the coronavirus reveal about the politics of climate crisis?
Helen Petrovsky
Corporation
Will an energy transition help fossil fuel companies?
Cameron Hu
Cuba
What can Cuba teach us about climate action?
Andrew Pendakis
Cycling
Is cycling a solution?
Stacey Balkan
Decolonization
What can OPEC teach us about the link between energy and decolonization?
Sanaz Sohrabi
Degrowth
Is degrowth inevitable?
Dominic Boyer
Democracy
To save the planet, do we need more democracy, or less?
Robert Danisch
Design
What does design make possible?
Keller Easterling
Development
Can development be green?
Siddharth Sareen
Digital
How does the digital reshape the material realm?
Shane Denson
Documentary
Why is uncertainty useful?
Thomas Pringle
Economy
Is economic expertise important?
Kylie Benton-Connell
Education
How should energy educators respond to youth climate activism?
Carrie Karsgaard
Electricity
How does electricity organize society?
Daniela Russ
Evidence
How is climate evidence used?
James Wilt
Expert
What counts as effective climate expertise?
Shane Gunster
Extinction
Is there a relation between energy and extinction?
Ashley Dawson
Family
What is the environmental future of the family?
Eva-Lynn Jagoe
Farm
Whose muscles power our food system?
Emily Pawley
Finance
Can we create an economy based on care?
Max Haiven
Fire/Bushfire
What can we learn from fire?
Meg Samuelson
Gaslighting
How has gaslighting circumscribed our environmental imagination?
Grace Franklin
Gender
Why is gender important to energy transition?
Petra Tschakert
Geoengineering
Is geoengineering inevitable?
Drew Pendergrass
Globalization
How does energy matter to globalization?
Tanner Mirrlees
Green New Deal
Will the Green New Deal save us from extinction?
Todd Dufresne
Greta
Why is intersectional agility Greta Thunberg's rhetorical superpower?
Sheena Wilson
Habit
What kinds of friction can disrupt the status quo?
Rhys Williams
India
Can there be a just transition in India?
Swaralipi Nandi
Indigenous
How are Indigenous and extraction related?
Deena Rymhs
Indigenous Activism
What is the power of radical care?
Amber Hickey
Industrial Revolution
What does a focus on jobs mean for energy transition?
Cara Daggett
IPCC
What can the IPCC tell us about the relationship between knowledge and action?
Marcela da Silveira Feital and Jessica O'Reilly
Japan
Why do fears of energy scarcity obstruct energy transition?
Hiroki Shin
Justice
What kind of justice is energy justice?
Pauline Destree and Sarah O'Brien
Keep It in the Ground
How can we build momentum to keep fossil fuels in the ground?
Angela Carter
Law
How can we change the law to prevent the climate crisis?
Michael B. Gerrard
Lifestyle
Are lifestyle changes a waste of time?
Mark Simpson
Local
How do local climate politics work best?
Brian Cozen and Danielle Endres
Mining
Why are the ways that we imagine mining important?
Gianfranco Selgas
Music
How are listening and energy related?
Sherry Lee and Emily MacCallum
Nationalism
What is the impact of transition on nationalism?
Zeynep Oguz
Natural Gas
Can natural gas be made visible, or viable?
John Szabo
Neoextractivism
What comes after neoextractivism?
Donald V. Kingsbury
Net Zero
Do we really want to live in a net-zero world?
Mijin Cha
Nonlinear
Can nonlinear imaginative practices help us survive nonlinear catastrophes?
Katy Didden
Normal
What will be normal after fossil fuels?
Stephanie LeMenager
North Dakota
How does oil extraction reshape space and time?
Kyle Conway
Online
When we are online, what lines are we on?
Anne Pasek
Organize
Can the master's tools dismantle the master's house?
Zainab Ashraf, Rachel Krueger, Guy Brodsky, Lesley Johnston, and Joy Hutchinson
Paris Agreement
Does the Paris Agreement still matter?
Amy Janzwood
Permafrost
What do you do when the ground starts to melt beneath your feet?
Brigt Dale
Pipeline
Why is opposition to pipelines important?
Kai Bosworth
Planet
What happens to politics on an increasingly unlivable planet?
Leah Aronowsky
Populism
What can energy politics learn from populism?
Rodrigo Nunes
Protest
Why is protection more important than protest in Indigenous struggles?
Kimberly Skye Richards
Renewable
What do renewables renew?
Marianna Dudley
Resource
Can waste serve as a resource for energy transition?
Kesha Fevrier and Anna Zalik
Retrofit
What does it mean to breathe life into buildings?
Fallon Samuels Aidoo and Daniel A. Barber
Sabotage
Can sabotage ever be more than a romantic gesture?
Ted Hamilton
Scale
What if scale were about equity rather than magnitude?
Cymene Howe
Scales
What can the human voice tell us about the scale of climate change?
Lisa Moore
Scenario Planning
Is the future a waste of time?
Josefin Wangel
Science
Do scientists believe that science matters?
Adam Sobel
Settler Colonialism
How can modern energy systems be indigenized?
S. Awasis
Shipping
What would actual free shipping look like?
Christiaan De Beukelaer
Solar Farm
Can solar farms foster energy justice, instead of obstructing it?
Dustin Mulvaney
Solidarity
How can solidarity catalyze energy democracy?
Ana Isabel Baptista
Sport
Can sport be untangled from oil?
Graeme Macdonald
Storytelling
What can storytelling really do?
Misty Matthews-Roper
Sustainability
Does sustainability's popularity indicate the failure of environmentalism?
Stephanie Foote
Trans-
What is trans- about transition?
Emerson Cram
Transitions
If transition is inevitable, will it be just?
Matthew S. Henry
Treaty
How can treaties help states transition away from fossil fuels?
Carlos Larrea, Bhushan Tuladhar, and Mohamed Adow
Vegan
What does transition look like on your plate?
Allisa Ali and Jordan B. Kinder
Waste
What is at stake in using waste for energy?
Aarti Latkar and Aalok Khandekar
Water
How can microbe metabolism foster sustainable infrastructures?
Melody Jue
Wind
What color is the wind?
David McDermott Hughes
Youth
Why is youth culture indispensable to energy transition?
Derek Gladwin
Acknowledgments
Contributors
Alternative Index