Researcher(s):
Sara Goldstein
ENVS course(s): 400 Initiated: September 2016 Completed: May 2017 Go to project site
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Renewable energy development theoretically aims to address social vulnerability in attempts to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The nature of resilient development, however, often ignores issues of social vulnerability and equity. Vulnerable populations are characterized by socio-economic positions that increase their risks to change. These populations possess less resilience against risks of hydrocarbon combustion-induced climate change, increase market price of energy, and displacement due to RE development caused displacement. In a three part, multi-method, critical analysis, I root global issues of energy and resilience in the locale of global city, Portland Oregon. Depicting the ways in which RE development in local economies can empower vulnerable residents, I explore I look at issues of equity and decision-making agency implicit in the policies that guide residential photovoltaic development. Understanding Portland as a ‘global city’ allows interesting connections to be made between local inequities and the globalization of; energy infrastructure, political economy, and vertically distributed modes of production.