After Oil

After Oil is a joint piece of writing from the University of Alberta’s Petrocultures Research Group. It is based on the thoughts and insigts of 35 international humanities researchers and artists who met in Edmonton in 2015 to discuss how oil has affected postindustrial society. After Oil is held together by three premises that support its argument: that oil and its infrastructures have an overwhelming profound impact on people’s perceptions of space and time, values, habits, and customs (what they label as “petromodernity”); that energy transition entails more than just changing energy sources and infrastructures, and will also need rethinking cultural values and imaginaries; and that the humanities have a particular ability for understanding the particularities of petrocultures, as well as for informing on the cultural efforts required to complete a genuine energy transition.