...is a four-year research project (2024-2028) funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. The aim of the project is to understand how people in mountain regions in Europe and Latin America maintain community-owned and family-owned hydropower plants and electricity supply networks over time.
The ongoing debate on decarbonized energy systems has opened up fundamental questions of how the production and distribution of electricity can be organized more fairly and democratically. However, although community renewable energy (CRE) initiatives are broadly discussed, the experiences of communities that have managed their own electricity production for many decades are rarely considered a proper resource and explored accordingly. The present project analyzes such experiences to contribute to designing empirically substantiated visions for alternative energy futures. We want to find out which social relationships and political mechanisms are important for the long-term maintenance of such infrastructures, and how the necessary knowledge is passed on from generation to generation and new skills developed in the process.
From 1 to 3 July 2025, the Institut Kulturen der Alpen held its Institute Days in Altdorf. We were particularly impressed by the excursion on the topic of water with hydrologist Rolf Weingartner. We are also delighted about the symbolic launch of our new anthology project on water, which will be realised over the next two years.
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Schubiger, E. (2025). Turkana’s extractive promises in limbo. Third World Quarterly, 1-18.