As global energy systems are transitioning towards decarbonisation, there emerge both potentials and concerns of how these systems might impact people’s everyday living. SAURINGYO is about designing with and for the ongoing energy transition with a focus on electric mobility services in rural regions of the global south. As field-based design and action research the project focuses on collaborative design of new electric mobility services and with it the addressing of social concerns within rural contexts. With this focus we are undertaking a longitudinal design experiment by collaboratively designing and deploying a light electric mobility service with a tribal women’s community in the Western Indian state of Gujarat. We are undertaking such a project with field research collaboration from the GIAN organization in Ahmedabad and project infrastructure support from the Aarhus based e-bike solutions developer Promovec.
After undertaking initial fieldwork at Ankhali village in Gujarat we are interested in the following three contexts for a collaborative design engagement and action research:
The settlement patterns of the Indian tribal belt have a peculiar form unlike typical Indian villages. The tribal communities are sparsely distributed with homes organically clustered around small agrarian land holdings (1-5 acres). This is also evident at Ankhali village and other settlements around the town of Devgarh Baria in South East Gujarat. In these parts there occur weekly markets called haats in different small villages on a daily basis. We ask how could new light electric mobility services support small agrarian producers to sell their produce in these haats more effectively? How can new electric mobility systems be collaboratively integrated into the existing networks of haats? What can we learn about new forms of ownership in logistics management for light electric mobility to distribute local produce in these weekly markets?
Currently it is common for girls in rural India to use bicycles. An issue emerges when a girl gets to be of marriageable age and then when she gets married. Within some communities’ cultural norms begin to restrict women to stop using bicycles around the time or after they get married. Similar gender bias relating to mobility also exist in other rural regions of Asia and even certain parts of Africa. In the current context when forms of mobility are changing because of electrification, we ask, how can we design new modes electric mobility which could address gender bias? Could the spread of electric mobility be used as a ‘vehicle’ for rural women in Asia and Africa towards a freedom of mobility? What are the forms of such a light electric mobility?
Then thirdly going eastwards of Gujarat, large parts of the central and eastern regions of the Indian tribal belt face challenges with the electric network. Although there is a push from the Indian government and also private entities to invest in solar micro grids in rural central India, for these micro grids to be economically sustainable there needs to be an optimal electricity demand. Currently a majority of rural communities in these parts are using electricity for domestic lighting with a few LED bulbs and then for charging their mobile phones. Such minimal demand challenges the economic feasibility for developing new electric networks. As a hypothesis the low energy demand could change if electric mobility were to spread in these places since charging batteries for mobility requires far more energy than what rural domestic practices need. While the issue of high battery costs remains in the current context, we wish to focus on the potential interaction between the energy requirements for rural mobility and how it could impact and shape domestic energy practices within the rural context.
Project Lead:
Dr. Karthikeya Acharya, the Socio-Technical Design Group, Department of Engineering, Aarhus University
Project Collaborators:
