Special Issue "Exploring the Socio-Spatial Processes behind a Low-Carbon Transition in the Countryside"
A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Energy".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2021.
Special Issue Editors
Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Palacký University Olomouc, 771 46 Olomouc, Czech Republic
Interests: low-carbon transition; diffusion and uptake of renewable energy; socio-spatial consequences of renewable energy; agricultural change; bioenergies; brownfield regeneration; community development
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Interests: rural geography; local development; spatial analysis; rural tourism; agricultural change; low carbon transition
Special Issue Information
We seek to reply to this unprecedented social, economic, environmental, and technological challenge with our call for the Special Issue of Energies on ways in which the countryside, and especially the peripheral countryside, and its population could benefit when gradually transformed and regenerated according to green and low-carbon principles. We are primarily interested in social and spatial processes that occur around the occurrence of renewable energy projects, low-carbon regeneration of brownfield sites in the countryside, and agricultural restructuring. We are also keen to learn more about the spreading of innovations in rural conditions and would like to better understand how these innovations are accepted (or refused) by rural populations.
There is no doubt that the transformation of the countryside has to be built on the principles of a green and low-carbon economy, as our future development is highly dependent on our much friendlier behaviour towards the environment.
Keywords
- low-carbon transition
- social and spatial consequences
- countryside for the future
- rural and community development
- peripheral regions
- acceptance of renewable energy projects
- rural innovations
- agricultural change
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Title: Local communities’ energy literacy as a way to rural resilience – an insight from Poland
Authors: Justyna Chodkowska-Miszczuk; Maria Kola-Bezka; Agata Lewandowska; Stanislav Martinát
Affiliation: University of Silesia in Katowice, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Institute of Social and Economic Geography and Spatial Management
Abstract: Energy transition is not only about the technology change, but it also has to deal with the socio-cultural and environmental transformation at local level. Hence, local communities’ energy literacy is crucial in the success of the transition and rural resilience. Energy literacy is a concept related to the multifaceted phenomenon of energy consumption, both in individual and collective dimensions. Therefore the aim of the present study is to analyse energy literacy of the local community, taking into account its three key dimensions (awareness, attitude, and behaviour), as an opportunity to build rural resilience. As results of the study show, there are some indications that the ecological awareness of rural residents is being formed. On the one hand, the needs for rational management of energy, including electricity and heat, come to the fore. On the other hand, we can observe various types of investments improving energy efficiency of residential buildings and enabling energy generation based on RES. They have the potential to become vectors for a just and sustainable rural energy transition, but only if they receive educational reinforcement and long-term institutional support centred on local context and social capital.
Title: Rural Derelict Areas as a Chance for the Development of Renewable Energy Production
Authors: Josef Navrátil; Stanislav Martinát; Petr Klusáček; , Tomáš Krejčí; Kamil Pícha; , Jaroslav Škrabal; Robert Osman
Affiliation: Department of Environmental Geography, Institute of Geonics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Drobného 28, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic
Title: Destroying ´rural idyll´ or supporting local development? Competing perceptions, conflicts and community acceptance of wind energy in Romanian Banat
Authors: Bohumil Frantal
Affiliation: Institute of Geonics CAS / Palacky University Olomouc