SPRU Freeman Seminar: Old wine in new glasses? Regional imaginaries and the foreclosure of post-oil futures in Stavanger

Speaker: Muzamil Farooq – University of Stavanger

Abstract

Regional transitions away from carbon-intensive specialisation are often narrated as inevitable, yet why some pathways gain traction while others fall away remains poorly understood. This paper advances the concept of regional imaginaries to explain how collective visions of the future shape and constrain regional development trajectories. Combining discourse analysis and elite interviews, we trace two decades of Stavanger's rebranding from 'oil capital' to 'energy capital', showing how a shifting yet oil-anchored imaginary selectively enabled some pathways while foreclosing others. Foregrounding temporality, conflict and uneven power, we argue that imaginaries offer a valuable lens on the contested, contradictory character of sustainability transitions.

Speaker Bio:

Muzamil Farooq is a doctoral researcher in regional innovation, economic geography and sustainability transitions at the Centre for Innovation Research, University of Stavanger, where he is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) fellow within the European SUNSET Doctoral Network. He is also Miguel-Dols Visiting Research Fellow at the Cañada Blanch Centre, London School of Economics. He holds an MSc in Science and Technology Policy from SPRU, University of Sussex, as a Commonwealth Scholar, alongside a master's in innovation and entrepreneurship and a bachelor's in mechanical engineering from India. His research examines how imaginaries and visions shape regional futures, combining critical discourse analysis and elite interviews with computational text mining. In collaboration with Regional Studies Association (RSA), he founded and co-hosts The RegInno Podcast.