S.B Divya

Patricia Romero-Lankao

Yíamar Rivera-Matos

Angel L. Echevarria

Joey Eschrich

Clark A. Miller

Please join us for a webinar celebrating the release of "Cities of Light: A Collection of Solar Futures," a new book of science fiction stories, art, and reflections that explore the future of social justice in solar-powered cities. The book is the product of an exciting collaboration between ASU’s Center for Energy & Society and Center for Science and Imagination and the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Written in the shadow of COVID-19, the murder of George Floyd, and the Black Lives Matter protests that followed it, the stories and essays in Cities of Light examine questions of how the future of solar energy might intersect with timely questions of social justice, political economy, democracy, coloniality, ownership, and urban-rural divides—as they play out in different urban contexts and along divergent future pathways of social and technological change.

They explore both how solar energy might play into existing patterns of difference and inequality, as well as how those patterns might be disrupted through innovative approaches to the socio-technical design of the post-carbon city. Ultimately, they challenge us to engage the project of building the post-carbon city not only as a project of deploying solar energy but also as a project of designing more just and equitable societies. The webinar will bring together authors and editors from the book to discuss how the book addresses these themes and the power of its methodology to help bring about thriving futures for all.

Series sponsored by:
Center for Energy & Society
School for the Future of Innovation in Society
Quantum Energy and Sustainable Solar Technologies Center
Sustainable Cities Network