Abstract

Accessibility and security of fuel supply is a fundamental social requirement. However, even in the world’s most privileged places a specifically modern problem presents itself`; life is sustained by complex critical infrastructures which are more fragile than is commonly supposed. In the case of electrical power these infrastructures are getting frailer. Many concerns have been raised. The UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (2004) urged that the project for 21sr century social science should be to tackle urban vulnerability and network failures. Here, we make a small contribution towards this project by focussing on one network failure: accidental loss of electrical power (blackouts).