Highlights•ULL are sites to design, test and learn from innovation in real time.•ULL are
proliferating rapidly while our understanding of their nature and purpose is still evolving.•We …

Smart technology alongside local energy systems are regularly considered critical for a low-
carbon transition. More recently, a growing body of literature has started to examine the (in) …

Demand side energy flexibility is increasingly being viewed as an essential enabler for the
swift transition to a low-carbon energy system that displaces conventional fossil fuels with …

Studies of societal engagement with socio-technical change are undergoing a systemic turn.
Rather than simply viewing public engagement in science, policy and behavioural change in …

Energy transitions are at the top of global agendas in response to the growing challenges of
climate change and international conflict, with the EU positioning itself as playing a pivotal …

In this Perspective paper we call for attention to the rise of digital platforms in the energy
field. The smart grid has laid the ground for–and is increasingly swept up by–attempts to …

Current efforts to change patterns of energy demand tend to target people as discrete and
isolated individuals. In so doing, they ignore the fact that energy use occurs in places such …

Smart cities promise to generate economic, social and environmental value through the
seamless connection of urban services and infrastructure by digital technologies (Hollands …

In a growing debate about the smart city, considerations of the ways in which urban
infrastructures and their materialities are being reconfigured and contested remain in the …

In this article we demonstrate how existing scenario-planning and forecasting methods
employed in the energy sector envision, prioritise and limit possible futures. We propose that …