Sparking A Worldwide Energy Revolution Social Struggles in the Transition to a Post-Petrol World

The world's energy system is on the verge of far reaching change, and its future is up for grabs.

A worldwide struggle over who controls the sector, and for what purposes, is intensifying. "Green capitalism" is the word of the hour, and we're being told that it's finally time to "save the planet" in order to "save the economy." But what we're not being told—with a deafening silence—is that the next round of global class struggle has begun, with energy at its center, as a key means of production and subsistence.

With more than fifty chapters representing over twenty countries around the globe, Sparking A Worldwide Energy Revolution combines strategic analysis with stories of concrete developments and struggles within the energy sector. The essays collected here document the social struggles at the heart of the existing energy sector, and trace the emerging alliances, conflicts, and hierarchies that are quickly defining the globally-expanding renewable energy sector.

Includes contributions from Preben Maegaard, George Caffentzis, Corporate Watch, China Labour Bulletin, Energy Watch Group, IG Metall, and others.

Kolya Abramsky is a former secretariat of the World Wind Energy Institute, based in Denmark, a pioneering country in renewable energy. He is currently a research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Science, Technology and Society in Austria, and is pursuing a PhD in sociology at State University of New York, Binghamton.