How Memories Can Shape Tomorrow鈥檚 Energy Choices
PhD research by Gijs ten Berge reveals how interpretations of the past helped shape future imaginaries during the Dutch household energy transition.
Gijs ten Berge of the Technology, Innovation & Society (TIS) research group will defend his PhD on 9 September 2026. His dissertation explores how perceptions of the past are part of the way people imagine and support societal and technological change.
As societies work toward new energy systems, digital technologies, and sustainable lifestyles, debates often focus on future possibilities. Yet people also draw on memories, historical narratives, and ideas about the past for the futures they consider desirable. Ten Berge鈥檚 research demonstrates that these perceptions of the past can play a significant role in shaping collective visions of the future.
Hidden Role
Within the field of sustainability transitions, researchers have extensively studied how groups develop shared visions and expectations about future technologies and societies. However, the role of historical perceptions has received far less attention. In his dissertation, Ten Berge introduces collective memory as an important factor in understanding how people and organizations gain support for particular future visions in transitions.
His work shows that actors do not only promote ideas about the future. They also actively use stories about the past to make those ideas appear achievable, desirable, and meaningful.
Futures Retold
To investigate this process, Ten Berge studied the transition to gas and electricity in Dutch households, which began in the 1870s. During this period, different women鈥檚 organizations developed competing visions of what a modern household should look like. Some promoted a future in which new energy technologies would be managed by a professional housewife. Others envisioned a society in which technological developments would reduce domestic work and create greater opportunities for women to participate in the labor market.
By analyzing women鈥檚 magazines and advisory publications from the time, he examined how historical narratives about technological development were used to support these competing visions of the future.
Why It Matters
The findings are relevant far beyond historical energy transitions. Today, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and citizens face major challenges related to climate change, energy infrastructure, electrification, and emerging technologies. Decisions about these challenges are often influenced by how people interpret previous experiences with innovation and societal change.
For example, public discussions about renewable energy, heat pumps, smart homes, or energy grids frequently refer to earlier technological shifts. Such references can help build support, but they can also shape resistance. Ten Berge鈥檚 research shows that historical narratives are not simply background context. They are actively used to influence how groups understand and evaluate future developments.
Stories That Connect
The dissertation demonstrates that women鈥檚 organizations used stories about the past to help individuals identify with particular visions of the modern household. Historical narratives also strengthened connections between actors operating at different societal levels, contributing to the spread of these visions across society.
The research further shows that people combined memories, expectations, and personal experiences into coherent stories explaining why certain futures were both desirable and realistic. These narratives helped transform future visions into collective identities.
Fresh Perspective
Ten Berge concludes that actors can function as what he describes 鈥渕nemonic actors鈥�: individuals or organizations that strategically mobilize perceptions of the past to shape future imaginaries. This perspective offers a new way to understand how societal transitions develop and why some imaginaries gain broader support than others.
For current transitions in energy, sustainability, and innovation, these insights highlight the importance of understanding not only technological possibilities but also the stories societies tell about their past.
defended his thesis on 9 September 2026.
Title of the thesis:
Supervisors: Frank Veraart and Anna Wieczorek.