The Smart Grid Archipelago: Development, Decarbonization, and Digital Dis/Connectivity in Jordan

This event is supported by the Department of Global Development in the Social, Political, and Ethical Dimensions of Technology in Development job talk series. 

Talk abstract

Decarbonization and digitalization stand at the center of rapidly changing development processes around the world. This talk examines new equity and justice challenges that emerge through these technological shifts, focusing on Jordan’s ambitious smart energy transition. Held up as a global model by investors, Jordan’s decarbonization program catalyzed US$4 billion in private investment for the development of renewable energy and smart grid technologies. Yet energy transition is experienced in powerfully uneven ways, as distributed solar and advanced metering technologies remake the spaces of urban life. Across Jordan today, the expansion of net-metered rooftop solar technologies exerts increasing economic pressure on landless urban residents, creating new islands of data and debt. Drawing from Glissant’s archipelagic thought, patchy landscapes of digital dis/connectivity reveal new forms of interdependence that emerge through smart energy transition. Broadening out beyond Jordan, this talk shows how rapid changes in energy and digital technologies create new relations between different groups of residents and the state, and new struggles for access and inclusion. By critically engaging the ethical implications of decarbonization and digitalization, this research highlights the possibilities for inclusive development and energy justice in the postcolonial world. 

Speaker

Kendra Kintzi is a Cornell Atkinson Postdoctoral Fellow affiliated with the Department of Global Development at Cornell University. Her research focuses on the politics of decarbonization, climate justice, and the possibilities for inclusive, democratic environmental governance in Jordan and across Southwest Asia.