Roles, responsibilities and capacities: Theorizing space, social practice, and the relational constitution of energy demand in and beyond Manchester

The links between cities, energy use and supply have increasingly formed central topics of research. Particular attention has been paid to the socio-technical dimensions of urban energy transitions in context and in action. Less attention has been paid to how cities become energy-demanding and challenging sites over time. Drawing together ideas from theories of social practice and Massey’s [1] theorisation of space, I articulate a relational-space-inspired approach apt for examining the spatial constitution and power-geometries of energy demand. I employ the approach to investigate the spatial deployment of energy-demanding settings and emergent challenges in Central Manchester over the past four decades, showing that neither were only made in the city. I argue that the approach introduced affords new opportunities to (re)evaluate the roles, responsibilities and capacities of different actors and the effects of specific practice and policy combinations, which do not necessarily support localised decarbonisation transitions.