Powering Divided Cities: Urban Energy Systems between Separation and Cooperation (DiviCiti)
Final Report Abstract
This project explored energy infrastructures as instruments of separation, control and collaboration, using the historical and contemporary experiences of three iconic divided cities – Berlin, Jerusalem and Nicosia – as exemplars. The purpose was threefold: 1) to identify the multiple ways in which geopolitical division has manifested itself in the cities’ electricity (and gas) supply systems; 2) to analyse the strategic responses of service providers, regulators and users to their divided and contested energy systems over time and 3) to use the cases to generate insight into energy infrastructures as conduits of separation, control and collaboration in politically contested cities. The research approach was distinctive for being socio-material (exploring the politics and agency of infrastructures), relational (appreciating the co-shaping of cities and infrastructures) and historical (embracing change and continuity over time). Taking a long-term perspective on division and unification to the three cities’ energy systems, covering the past 75 years, enabled us to track important shifts in sociotechnical configurations as well as in stakeholder responses that proved highly revealing. Six core findings emerged from the project, all of which challenge simplistic distinctions be-tween separation, control and collaboration and point to surprising combinations of them. Our term ‘transitional trajectories’ reflects the conjunctions of continuity and change characteristic of energy infrastructures in all three cities, acknowledging both embedded dependencies and disruptive junctures. ‘Seductive separation’ captures the lure of self-sufficient systems of electricity generation, transmission and distribution in divided cities that proved delusional in the face of political, material and economic limitations. ‘Constrained control’ refers to at-tempts to use energy infrastructure as an instrument of territorial and political control that often failed to meet expectations in complex and shifting geopolitical environments. ‘Conditional collaboration’ with the other side over energy infrastructure and provision was some-times unavoidable but was often actively pursued as part of cities’ resilience strategies. ‘Situated cities’ highlights the need to see beyond and within a city to comprehend the contested geographies around energy in divided cities. Finally, we coined the term ‘indeterminate infra-structures’ to express the notion of them being continuously unsettled, countering popular assumptions of them as bulwarks of stability in the face of volatile urban environments. Communicating these nuances in these cities proved difficult during Covid restrictions, but a highlight was a stakeholder workshop with professionals from both Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities held in the buffer zone of Nicosia in 2022. Here, the project team presented experiences of divided and contested energy systems in Berlin and Jerusalem to stimulate a fruitful exchange about similarities with, and differences to, the situation in Cyprus.
Publications
-
Demanding demand: Political configurations of energy efficiency in Berlin, 1920-2020, Journal of Energy History 5.
Moss, T., & Sareen, S.
-
City Profile: Nicosia. Cities, 30, 103866.
Shtern, M., Sonan, S., & Papasozomenou, O.
-
Infrastructure sovereignty: battling over energy dominance in Jerusalem. Territory, Politics, Governance, 1-21.
Shtern, M., Herman, L., Fischhendler, I., & Rosen, G.
-
Navigating electricity in-/interdependence in Cold War Berlin: an instructive history of urban infrastructure security. Urban History
Moss, T.
-
The meaning of energy islands: Towards a theoretical framework. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 187, 113732.
Rettig, E., Fischhendler, I., & Schlecht, F.
-
Gridlocked: Governing cross-border electricity provision and infrastructure in a divided Cyprus since 1963. Energy Research & Social Science, 115
Moss, T., Papasozomenou, O., Shtern, M., & Sonan, S.
