Inclusion, Organising, Commoning

This comic book is an art-science collaboration made possible through the Responsive Organising for Low Emission Societies (ROLES) project, which undertook engaged ethnographic research dur- ing 2020-2023 in Bergen and Stavanger in Norway. The project was funded by the Joint Program- ming Initiative Climate in partnership with the Research Council of Norway and national funding bodies in the UK and Italy through the SOLSTICE call on enabling societal transformation in the face of climate change. Research was undertaken by a team at the University of Bergen, University of Stavanger, University of Sussex and EURAC Research. ROLES was a no fly project, where we worked locally, held monthly online meetings as an international consortium, and undertook a single in- person consortium meeting using surface transport to convene in Groningen. We formed friend- ships and collaborated successfully.

The project produced many publications in and across case studies on smart local energy systems (with an emphasis on solar energy) in Brighton in the UK, on smart electric meters and grids in Tren- to in Italy, and on smart urban transport in Bergen and Stavanger in Norway. It also featured more than ten Master theses and hosted interns, thus building capacity to enable actionable knowledge, and even led to concrete changes in policy. Team members conducted and contributed to a wide range of public events. Throughout its multi-pronged approach to enabling societal transforma- tion, the project was centred on how the twin transition of digitalisation and decarbonisation could take place in a socially inclusive manner. This comic book shines a light on the key insights from Team Norway on urban transport. Like the overarching thrust of ROLES, these insights are summed up in the mantra of ‘Inclusion, Organising, Commoning’ reflected in the title of this comic book. Promoting these principles with science outreach through transdisciplinary collaboration is vital in order to engage with and mobilise diverse publics.

The poem, in ten stanzas, captures the essence of the many hundreds of thousands of words used in the peer-reviewed scientific publications from ROLES. Our hope is that policymakers, transport users, urban planners, and transport authorities will resonate with the key messages and their underlying philosophy. The decisions needed for socially inclusive, common urban transport fu-tures are in our grasp. In the solarpunk spirit of this comic book and its companion textile art by Margrethe Brekke featuring the same poem, we close with a request to readers to engage in ‘re- sponsive organising’ for commoning.