Off-grid Cities project attends RGS-IBG 2023 Conference in London

GCRO’s Off-Grid Cities project sent a delegation to the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Annual International Conference 2023 (RGS-IBG) in London (29 August – 1 September 2023) to present project findings. The 2023 conference was chaired by Professor Harriet Bulkeley (Durham University, UK) and themed Climate changed geographies. The conference initiated conversations about how climate change is, and is not, changing Geography – our ways of knowing, exploring, understanding and acting geographically – and with what consequences.

The conference was a key opportunity for the Off-grid Cities team to network with academics from around the world who are undertaking research related to the project. The Off-grid Cities project hosted a session at the conference (30 August 2023), entitled Off-grid Cities: Infrastructure tensions between sustainability and (in)justice. The session was chaired by Prof. Charlotte Lemanski and included four presentations, two of which were from the project team (Prof. Fiona Anciano and Joanna Watterson). This session was sponsored by the Energy Geographies Research Group and the Urban Geography Research Group, and was well attended.

Representing the GCRO at the conference were Christina Culwick Fatti, Samkelisiwe Khanyile and Dr Brian Murahwa. Culwick-Fatti presented with Dr Margot Rubin, and they reflected on the methodological challenge of researching elite groups and how the Off-grid Cities project has taken a multi-pronged approach to navigate the various difficulties faced in the field. Khanyile presented emerging research on the distribution of solar panels using the GCRO’s Quality of Life 6 (2020/21) survey and new satellite-derived spatial datasets. Murahwa presented findings from his ethnographic fieldwork in Waterfall City, reflecting on attitudes and practices of alternative energy investments within private estates.

The project team gave seven presentations across various sessions:

• Brian Murahwa (August 2023) ‘The Energisation of Space and Uneven Development in South Africa’, Uneven Landscapes of the Energy Transition (in-person session), RGS-IBG Annual conference 2023, 30 August 2023.
• Eyong M. Tarh (August 2023) ‘Social justice and the governance of solar energy: a study of Viking Business Park, Epping and Shoprite Distribution Centre, Brackenfell’, Greening at the margins: energy peripheries in climate changed geographies (hybrid session), RGS-IBG Annual conference 2023, 30 August 2023. Recording is available here.
• Fiona Anciano, Charlotte Lemanski, Christina Culwick Fatti and Margot Rubin (August 2023) ‘Substituting and supplementing the state? Juxtaposing the political impacts of diverse citizens’ practices of off-gridding and living beyond the state’, Off-grid Cities: Infrastructure tensions between sustainability and (in)justice (in-person session), RGS-IBG Annual conference 2023, 30 August 2023.
• Joanna Watterson and Laurence Piper (August 2023) ‘Towards a framework of ‘off-gridding’: Citizenship amid off-grid practices and processes in urban South Africa’, Off-grid Cities: Infrastructure tensions between sustainability and (in)justice (in-person session), RGS-IBG Annual conference 2023, 30 August 2023.
• Samkelisiwe Khanyile and Christina Culwick Fatti (August 2023) ‘Examining the extent and distributional equity of solar in Gauteng’, Understanding the geographies of clean energy (in-person session), RGS-IBG Annual conference 2023, 30 August 2023.
• Temba Middelmann (August 2023) ‘Multi-scalar analysis of the energy transition as a lens into uneven development in Cape Town’s energy and water sectors’, Understanding the geographies of clean energy (in-person session), RGS-IBG Annual conference 2023, 30 August 2023.
• Christina Culwick Fatti and Margot Rubin (September 2023) ‘Examining elite grid secession in South Africa’, The role of energy social science and humanities insights (virtual session), RGS-IBG Annual conference 2023, 31 August 2023. Recording is available here.

Dr Brian Murahwa responding to questions after his presentation in the first session of the conference on 'Uneven Landscapes of the Energy Transition'

Eyong Tarh presenting in a hybrid session on 'Greening at the margins: energy peripheries in climate changed geographies'

Off-grid Cities team members during a lunch break at the RGS venue (left to right: Fiona Anciano, Brian Murahwa, Joanna Watterson, Temba Middelmann)

Charlotte Lemanski opening the project-hosted session on 'Off-grid Cities: Infrastructure tensions between sustainability and (in)justice'