Have you heard of Energy Humanities?

My review of a number of recent scholarly contributions on energy and sustainability has just appeared in De Nederlandse Boekengids (nov 2017). While diverse and wide-ranging, the many insightful analyses contained in these publications demonstrate the power of imagination in overcoming the current energy impasse. The various authors also apply incisive critical thought to fossil culture, and to the very idea of the climate crisis and of the anthropocene.

The following works are reviewed:

• Sheena Wilson, Adam Carlson & Imre Szeman (Eds) Petrocultures: Oil, Politics, Culture, McGill-Queen’s University Press 2017.
• Imre Szeman & Dominic Boyer (Eds) Energy Humanities: An Anthology, Johns Hopkins University Press 2017.
• Derk Loorbach, Vanesa Castán Broto, Lars Coenen & Niki Frantzeskaki (Eds), Urban Sustainability Transitions, Routledge 2017.
• Petrocultures Research Group, After Oil, Petrocultures Research Group 2016.
• Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins, Princeton University Press 2015; 2017.