Assembling urban energy : sociotechnical perspectives on a seawater district heating project

This chapter explores the application of assemblage theory to analyse the development of an innovative seawater district heating system near The Hague, in the Netherlands. In doing so, we argue that the story of a stable technological system, moulded and shaped into a final obdurate form by social and political interests is a narrative that conceals as much as it reveals. By following the fluidity of the design and development process that twists and turns as the system emerges and changes shape, the case study highlights the potential contribution of the assemblage perspective and its ability to reveal the complexity and context specificity of sociotechnical system building. In this way, the chapter argues that the relational framing of systems as they are assembled, maintained and disassembled, encourages us to look beyond the naive certainties of best practice policy toward a richer engagement with the practices, politics and places of urban network development