Materiality and sustainability transitions: integrating climate change in transport infrastructure in Ontario, Canada
<p class="first" id="d270417e69">Infrastructure threatens to lock-in societies to fossil fuels unless something is done now. This is because infrastructure lasts for such a long time, meaning that any infrastructure built or rebuilt now will last wel...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Pluto Journals
2016-08-01
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| Series: | Prometheus |
| Online Access: | https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.1080/08109028.2017.1331612 |
| _version_ | 1797833991135428608 |
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| author | Kean Birch |
| author_facet | Kean Birch |
| author_sort | Kean Birch |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <p class="first" id="d270417e69">Infrastructure threatens to lock-in societies to fossil fuels unless something is
done now. This is because infrastructure lasts for such a long time, meaning that
any infrastructure built or rebuilt now will last well into the twenty-first century
– until the end of the century, in some cases. Consequently, there is a need to integrate
climate change into infrastructure now or societies will be left with infrastructure
designed around unsustainable socio-technical systems (such as combustion engines,
roads, and suburbanization). Such change is conceptualized in the literature as a
sustainability transition. However, any attempts at such transitions have to address
the ‘materialities’ of infrastructure systems (physical form, environmental context,
and so on). In this paper, I develop the concept of ‘socio-material systems’ and apply
it to transport infrastructure in Ontario, Canada.
</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T14:32:37Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6dd9ce1d29a94ada83c667f214fc5ee8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0810-9028 1470-1030 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T14:32:37Z |
| publishDate | 2016-08-01 |
| publisher | Pluto Journals |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Prometheus |
| spelling | doaj.art-6dd9ce1d29a94ada83c667f214fc5ee82023-05-03T15:21:08ZengPluto JournalsPrometheus0810-90281470-10302016-08-01343-419120610.1080/08109028.2017.1331612Materiality and sustainability transitions: integrating climate change in transport infrastructure in Ontario, CanadaKean Birch<p class="first" id="d270417e69">Infrastructure threatens to lock-in societies to fossil fuels unless something is done now. This is because infrastructure lasts for such a long time, meaning that any infrastructure built or rebuilt now will last well into the twenty-first century – until the end of the century, in some cases. Consequently, there is a need to integrate climate change into infrastructure now or societies will be left with infrastructure designed around unsustainable socio-technical systems (such as combustion engines, roads, and suburbanization). Such change is conceptualized in the literature as a sustainability transition. However, any attempts at such transitions have to address the ‘materialities’ of infrastructure systems (physical form, environmental context, and so on). In this paper, I develop the concept of ‘socio-material systems’ and apply it to transport infrastructure in Ontario, Canada. </p>https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.1080/08109028.2017.1331612 |
| spellingShingle | Kean Birch Materiality and sustainability transitions: integrating climate change in transport infrastructure in Ontario, Canada Prometheus |
| title | Materiality and sustainability transitions: integrating climate change in transport infrastructure in Ontario, Canada |
| title_full | Materiality and sustainability transitions: integrating climate change in transport infrastructure in Ontario, Canada |
| title_fullStr | Materiality and sustainability transitions: integrating climate change in transport infrastructure in Ontario, Canada |
| title_full_unstemmed | Materiality and sustainability transitions: integrating climate change in transport infrastructure in Ontario, Canada |
| title_short | Materiality and sustainability transitions: integrating climate change in transport infrastructure in Ontario, Canada |
| title_sort | materiality and sustainability transitions integrating climate change in transport infrastructure in ontario canada |
| url | https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.1080/08109028.2017.1331612 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT keanbirch materialityandsustainabilitytransitionsintegratingclimatechangeintransportinfrastructureinontariocanada |