Academic Publications

Prefiguring energy futures: Hybrid energy initiatives and just transitions in fossil fuel regions

This paper explores hybrid energy initiatives - initiatives that leverage former fossil fuels sites, infrastructure, and labor for renewable energy projects, and examines their position in prefiguring alternative energy futures in fossil fuel regions.

Hybrid energy initiatives can alleviate material, political, and cultural barriers to energy transitions by accounting for present contexts in regions of historical fossil fuel extraction. However, discourses and technologies do not guarantee the operationalization of the just transition narratives these initiatives draw upon. This is illustrated in two case studies, one in Appalachia, USA, and the other in Alberta, Canada, that position themselves as innovative endeavors in the utilization of former fossil fuel sites and infrastructures for new solar energy projects.

Funding: National Science Foundation and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

Egler, M., Barbieri, L. 2024. 'Prefiguring energy futures: hybrid energy initiatives and just transitions in fossil fuel regions'. Energy Research & Social Science, 118, 103830.

Power, narrative, and the oil and gas worker: Meaning making and the maintenance of extractive subjectivities

This article theorizes the relationship between labour alienation and the adoption of narratives that create meaning while also rationalizing and defending uneven power dynamics within the fossil fuel industry.

We asked workers from two of North America’s most prominent regions of historical fossil fuel extraction–northern Alberta, Canada, and West Texas, United States–to narrate their experiences and perspectives. Drawing on their words, we explore the resonance between workers' accounts of alienation, the rationalizations they articulate, and the narratives circulated by fossil fuel capital. Our findings have implications for those working toward more just and ecological societies within the polarized contexts of energy and climate.

Funding: National Science Foundation and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

Egler, M., Morse, C. 'Power, narrative, and the oil and gas worker: Meaning making and the maintenance of extractive subjectivities', in review at Antipode.

Other Peer Review Publications

Farley, J., Melgar, R., Burke, M., Danielsen, J., Egler, M., et. al. (2024) 'Rethinking Ecosystem Services from the Anthropocene to the Ecozoic: Nature’s Benefits to the Biotic Community'. Ecosystem Services, 67, 101624.

Egler, M. (2021) 'Not Well Spent: A review of $1-billion federal funding to clean up Alberta’s inactive oil and gas wells'. Parkland Institute and Oxfam Canada. Edmonton, Canada.

Diwekar, U., Amekudzi-kennedy, A., Bakshi, B., Baumgartner, R., Boumans, R., Burger, P., Egler, M., … Theis, T. (2021) 'A perspective on the role of uncertainty in sustainability science and engineering'. Resources, Conservation & Recycling, 164, 105140.

Bliss, S., & Egler, M. (2020) 'Ecological Economics Beyond Markets'. Ecological Economics, 178, 106806.

Vargas Roncancio, I., Temper, L., Sterlin, J., Smolyar, N.L., Sellers, S., Moore, M., Melgar-Melgar, R., Larson, J., Horner, C., Erickson, J.D., Egler, M., Brown, P.G., Boulot, E., Beigi, T., Babcock, M., (2019). 'From the Anthropocene to mutual thriving: An agenda for higher education in the Ecozoic'. Sustainability, 11, 3312.

Book Chapters

Bliss, S., Barbieri, L., Egler, M., Mulrow, J. (forthcoming) Degrowth. In Vocabulary for Sustainable Consumption and Lifestyles. Akenji, L., Vergragt, P., Brown, H.S., Smith, T., Wallnöfer, L.M. (Eds.). Routledge.

Egler, M. Egalitarian, Egalitarianism. (2023) In Dictionary of Ecological Economics: Terms for the New Millennium. Haddad, B.M., Solomon, B.D. (Eds.). Edward Elgar Publishing Limited

Farley, J. & Egler, M. (2021) Panarchy and the Economy. In Applied Panarchy: Applications and Diffusions Across Disciplines. Alan, C., Gunderson, L., Garmestani, A. Island Press.

Koliba, C., Egler, M., Posner, S. (2020) Governing for sustainable development: rethinking governance and ecological economics. In Sustainable Wellbeing Futures: A Research and Action Agenda for Ecological Economics. Costanza, R., Erickson, J. Farley, J., Kubiszewski. Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.