Urban Energy Transitions: Places, Processes and Politics of Socio-technical Change

摘要

On the second anniversary of the meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Japan, some of the focus fell on the abandoned, radioactive ghost towns in and around the disaster exclusion zone from which remaining residents have been forced to evacuate. A series of poignant images shows the empty streets, collapsed houses, unused drinks and rice vending machines, school bags hanging outside a class in an abandoned school (The Guardian, 11 March 2013). All are a reminder of the sudden, brutal collapse and absolute fragility of urban livelihoods and materials in the wake of an energy infrastructure failing to withstand an earthquake and tsunami.