Andreas Roos

Lund University | LU · Human Ecology Division

Social visions to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy sources have motivated unprecedented growth in global renewable energy manufacturing. Previous literature shows that people committed to realizing such visions have difficulties reconciling with the negative social-ecological impacts of this mass production even if it presents a formidabl...

Debates on technologies for harnessing renewable energies tend to generate a polarized arena in which critical voices are automatically denounced as defenders of fossil energy. This has created a difficult situation for activists and scholars voicing concerns about the comparatively low power density, low net energy, and environmental justice conce...

Building on insights from ecological economics and philosophy of technology, this book offers a novel, interdisciplinary approach to understand the contradictory nature of Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology. Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is rapidly emerging as a cost-effective option in the world economy. However, reports about miserable work...

The potential of geothermal energy for energy transition is increasingly recognized by governments around the world. Whether geothermal energy is a sustainable source of heat and/or electricity depends on how it is deployed in specific contexts. Therefore, it is striking that there is only limited attention to geothermal energy from a social scienc...

Global installations of solar photovoltaic (PV) technology have reached unprecedented levels and is expected to further rise in the coming decades. Conventional interpretations have neglected international trade flows and the globally uneven valuation of labor and resources as relevant for the commercialization of solar PV technology. This study ch...

Transitioning into a sustainable energy system is becoming ever more pressing as the reality of an anthropogenic ecological crisis becomes difficult to ignore. Due to the complexity of the matter, proposed solutions often address the symptoms of the current socioeconomic configuration rather than its core. To conceptualise possible future energy sy...

Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is one of the most favored means of mitigating climate change. At the same time, there is a growing concern over how this technology is both environmentally harmful and unevenly distributed in the world economy. Researchers and environmentalists differ on whether a global relation of power is inherent in solar tec...

This chapter reviews four major strands of twentieth-century philosophy of technology and shows how all of them have predominantly thought of technology as immaterial. This suggests that modern people have widely embraced the popular image of ‘lightbulbs as bright ideas’ in relation to technology. While research on the biosphere emerged from an und...

What is technology? This chapter reviews four major strands of 20th century philosophy of technology and shows how all of them have predominantly thought of technology as immaterial. This suggests that modern people have widely embraced the popular image of “lightbulbs as bright ideas” in relation to technology at large. While research on the biosp...

Given the many problems with fossil energy, the fact that solar energy still only constitutes aninsignificant fraction of global energy use requires explanation. The most common explanation isthat multinational corporations with vested interests in fossil fuels have been actively preventingthe development of solar energy technologies. But this expl...

The Materiality of the Immaterial: ICTs and the Digital Commons, edited by Andreas Roos, Vasilis Kostakis, Christos Giotitsas Today, two great signs of change are occurring. On the one hand, the capitalist world economy is putting tremendous pressure on the earth’s biosphere and bringing an onslaught of destruction to immediate environments and v...

Today, two great signs of change are occurring. On the one hand, the capitalist world economy is putting tremendous pressure on the earth’s biosphere and bringing an onslaught of destruction to immediate environments and vulnerable people worldwide. On the other hand, the rise of new and progressive social-economic foundations is the result of an u...

Today, two great signs of change are occurring. On the one hand, the capitalist world economy is putting tremendous pressure on the earth’s biosphere and bringing an onslaught of destruction to immediate environments and vulnerable people worldwide. On the other hand, the rise of new and progressive social-economic foundations is the result of an u...