The University of Bristol Global Political Economy FRG are pleased to invite you to a research seminar with Matthew Paterson, Professor of International Politics at University of Manchester and Director of the Sustainable Consumption Institute.

The energy transition is a critical part of the global response to the climate crisis, but its path is neither clear nor free of challenges.

While specific disruptions of energy transitions are widely acknowledged, from the exploitation at extraction sites all the way through to the daily practices of energy consumers, mainstream models of transitions still present them as smooth lines in models of shifting from fossil fuels to renewables. Attempts to think about disruption explicitly as a concept tend to be couched in the language of business innovation, framing disruption in narrow terms.

Challenging these narratives, Matthew Paterson will present ongoing work that attempts to provide a broader framework for thinking about both how energy transitions disrupt societies in multiple ways, how other sources of disruption shape the possibilities and contours of energy transitions, and thus, whether we will respond to the challenge of climate change as required.

To illustrate the argument, the talk focuses on recent crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, the war in Ukraine, and the election of Trump. The first part of this event will be a presentation, followed by a period for questions and discussion.

This event is open to all University of Bristol staff and students.

About the speaker

Matthew Paterson is Professor of International Politics at the University of Manchester and Director of the Sustainable Consumption Institute. His research focuses on the political economy, global governance, and cultural politics of climate change. His latest book is In Search of Climate Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2021), and previous publications include Global Warming and Global Politics (1996). He is currently working on a project on the political economy of energy transitions, especially focused on the disruption to supply chains these transitions entail.

About the organisers

This event is hosted by the Global Political Economy Faculty Research Group.

The Global Political Economy (GPE) research group brings together academics from across the University of Bristol who are interested in a wide range of questions within a broadly defined field of global political economy.

We run a range of activities and events throughout the academic year, from reading groups to lectures.