Gas, Technology, and Power: Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Energy Transitions in a Fossil City

Abstract

This study examines the role of sociotechnical imaginaries in shaping energy transitions, focusing on Ravenna, a port city in Northern Italy with a long-standing economic dependence on natural gas. Despite increasing international pressure to decarbonize, natural gas remains deeply embedded in local institutional and cultural visions of development. The research investigates the co-production between political orders and technological advancement, analyzing how material heritage, past and future narratives, and actor alliances work together to sustain a fossil-based energy regime under the guise of transition. Since the postwar “methane era”, natural gas has been framed in Ravenna as a symbol of social progress, energy security, and regional prosperity. These meanings have been maintained through the concerted efforts of industrial actors, local institutions, and the labor sector. In the energy transition conjuncture, new technologies such as Carbon Capture and Storage, alongside emergency discourses around energy security and nostalgic references to a prosperous industrial past, have enabled the re-legitimation of carbon-intensive infrastructure and technologies. These technologies are not presented as short-term solutions but as transformative tools that allow the persistence of fossil-based industrial production and gas extraction while rhetorically aligning with decarbonization goals. The result is a “transition within” the fossil regime, where continuity is recast as innovation. The research draws on 20 semi-structured interviews, document analysis and a review of relevant scientific literature. Findings reveal a contested landscape: while established institutional and corporate coalitions defend methane as essential to local wealth and job preservation, environmental activists and organizations oppose fossil dependency and advocate for transformative approaches. Ravenna thus emerges as a critical site for understanding how sociotechnical imaginaries shape energy futures, revealing broader tensions between technological solutionism, economic interest, and the political contestation of low-carbon transitions. Moreover, this case also sheds light on the need to collectively reconsider prevailing notions of prosperity and “good life” in a time of overlapping crises.