PhD defence L. (Lillian) Sol Cueva

Summary:

In the wake of the climate crisis, it has become evident that a global transformation of our sociotechnical energy systems is needed. In Mexico, this transformation is led by ‘eco’ imaginaries and ‘fossil-fuels’ imaginaries, counterposing renewables against fossil fuels based the environmental and economic impacts of each. Particularly, in Mexico City, policymakers have used these imaginaries to select a single future vision in which some public spaces and government-owned buildings will be powered by renewables, and others by fossil fuels. Considering that municipal public markets are officially owned by the city, they were included in this single future vision. However, markets’ energy systems were not selected to be transformed, meaning that municipal public markets will continue to be supplied by centralized fossil-fuel sources.

This dissertation considers that mobilizing a single future limits the possibilities of transforming our energy systems, as it excludes multiple voices and visions. With a feminist standpoint and using a narrative methodological approach, my research aims to challenge the singular in Mexico City’s energy future by including vendors’ visions/imaginaries of the future of municipal public markets and their socio-technical energy systems. Through a storytelling exercise, my research engages with women vendors to talk about their energy visions and about the role of municipal public markets in the transformation of the energy systems in Mexico City. The research presents pathways in which energy systems are renewable, are controlled by the vendors, and serve the needs and interests of all. It shows that vendors’ visions/imaginaries challenge the clear-cut borders of some dichotomies used in the literature such as vision/imaginary, quantifiable/qualifiable energy, dominant/alternative visions or imaginaries, and utopian/dystopian futures. It argues that it is possible to find the (un)sustainable and (un)just in energy imaginaries by using intersectionality, energy justice and energy sovereignty as analytical frameworks. My research contributes to a growing body of heterogeneous perspectives in energy and futures research by weaving together feminism, futures, and sustainable energy transitions studies, whilst also contributing to the development of narratives and storytelling, which are currently under-represented methodological approaches in energy research and social science scholarship.