ROLES

ROLES lives up to its name – Responsive Organising for Low Emission Societies. In a digitalising world, it looks at energy systems across multiple sectors in mid-sized European cities: smart meters in Trento (Italy), solar rollout in Brighton (UK) and electric mobility in Bergen and Stavanger (Norway). How can digitalisation of energy systems at the urban scale have socially inclusive impacts? With this in mind, our consortium conducts intensive local fieldwork, extensive collaborative analysis, reflexive engagement with stakeholders, all to come up with pathways of digitalisation for deep decarbonisation. All this in a no-fly project with over a dozen dedicated members!

Project website: http://roles.w.uib.no

• Digitalisation is rapidly underway in multiple sectorsthat are all part of an increasingly interconnected energy system. Its effects are not yet widely understood and our research uncovers ways in which digitalised energy systems can be socially inclusive.

• Impacts vary by type of technology(e-scooters for micro-mobility versus active modes of transport, which can be app-ified and integrated), user needs (urban elites versus social housing areas) and evolving cost and maturity (rooftop solar in urban milieus).

• People are really interested in engaging with digitalisation,but many feel they lack agency to change its impact – something we are constantly working with!