Energy infrastructures in divided cities

Abstract

The article examines energy infrastructures as instruments of separation, control and collaboration in three politically divided cities: Berlin, Jerusalem and Nicosia. Using a socio-material, relational and historical approach, it analyses how geopolitical division and unification have shaped electricity and gas systems over 75 years, and how service providers, politicians and users responded to divided and reunited energy systems. The paper argues that energy infrastructures in contested cities cannot be understood only as technical systems, but also as socio-material and political instruments through which power, dependency, resilience and cooperation are negotiated.