Dinner Speech - Matthias Groß

Recent debates on urban labs, the establishment of alternative energy systems or innovation processes such as green technology have to cope with a tension between “experimental” openness on the one hand and clearly set sustainability goals on the other. In my presentation I will highlight current “experimental” activities on renewable energy systems. I will suggest that in the 21^st century the establishments of alternative energy systems call for an experimental setup outside the laboratory first, with the activities normally associated with a laboratory setting only implemented post hoc. Experimental processes in a society transforming itself towards sustainability can thus be conceptualized as “real” experiments and laboratory activities as merely temporarily subordinated components of the larger experiment.