Whose energy use matters? Reflections on energy poverty and decolonisation

Abstract

Calls for decolonisation have over recent years spread across academic institutions, disciplines and fields of research. Taking up a decolonisation agenda involves not only making clear the colonial foundation of contemporary patterns of inequality, injustice and discrimination, but also asking searching questions about how contemporary knowledge that is routinely produced, shared and made use of is embedded in colonial histories and worldviews. Much that is implicit in assumptions about how things are known, what matters and how change is to be pursued is potentially opened up to critique; with links to longer standing calls for the valuing of indigenous/local knowledge and for challenging universal (western) claims of truth and meaning (Jansen, 2019). Decolonisation implies institutional critique, but also challenging our own assumptions and practice, reflecting on how these have been shaped by the history of ideas that have come to dominate particular fields of inquiry.