The Give and Take of Wind: History, Struggle and Renewable Energy in the Mediterranean

• In much of Europe, the energy transition away from fossil fuels is slowing down or has stopped altogether. Policy- makers and most academics are frustrated and stymied. Why should superior technology - technology that is becoming cheaper as well - not immediately replace the archaic gadgetry of coal, oil, and gas? The answer to that crucial question lies well outside the fields of technology and engineering. The energy transition, in other words, is a social, political, and cultural process - one best understood by innovative research such as this book’s proposes.
• Rural Europe - especially the European South - needs this kind of development. Small and medium-scale agriculture has largely collapsed, as people leave the villages and agri-business moves in my earlier work described this deterioration in Sardinia. There is a trail of tears as families abandon homes and hillsides dear to them for generations. The book describes this shift as a ＂dispossession＂ - of local communities by external corporations. By analyzing the feeling of dispossession, this book can also serve as a lever for future energy actions.
• So that is the setting within which energy investment is now taking place - or proposed, but not taking place. In many cases, the remaining villagers protest and obstruct solar and or wind farms. They do not see these large corporate structures as replacing the revenue, jobs, and livelihoods they have lost. Indeed, many interpret panels and turbines as simply another phase of the agrarian transition and dispossession already imposed upon them. Their ＂nostalgia,＂ the book argues, is breathing new life into fossil fuels.

Elena Apostoli Cappello is Researcher at the Laboratory of Architecture and Human Sciences (SASHA) at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. She has published widely on subjectification processes, activism, public participation and citizenship. With grants obtained under Horizon 2020, her research has focused on the local effects of transition policies, particularly in Europe.