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Title Working to align energy transitions and social equity: An integrative framework linking institutional work, imaginaries and energy justice
Full text https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/413188
Date 2021
Author(s) Hoffman, Jesse; Davies, Megan; Bauwens, Thomas; Späth, Philipp; Hajer, Maarten A.; Arifi, Bleta; Bazaz, Amir; Swilling, Mark
Contributor(s) Urban Futures; Dynamics of Innovation Systems; Faculteit Geowetenschappen; Innovation Studies; Section Urban Futures
Abstract Recent academic evidence suggests that, in contrast to what is often thought, the introduction of renewable energy infrastructures often leads to negative, not positive, social equity outcomes. Against this background, this paper aims to develop and empirically illustrate an integrative framework for analysing the work ' or 'agency' ' exercised by actors operating within and across different global contexts to align renewable energy and social equity. To this end, the paper first reviews three generative conceptions of agency in the energy transitions literature: institutional work, imaginaries and energy justice. In reviewing their explanatory power as well as their shortcomings, the paper concludes that these different conceptions of agency can be integrated meaningfully in an expanded conceptualisation of institutional work that spans three distinct domains: i) 'reimagining', ii) 'recoding' and iii) 'reconfiguring'. This article demonstrates that the three domains can be understood to reiteratively feed into each other in what we call the 'triple re-cycle'. These iterations produce either bolstering effects that strengthen the potential for positive social equity outcomes or evaporative effects that diminish or undermine this potential. We empirically illustrate the framework in case studies from Germany and South Africa. Overall, we argue that the triple re-cycle, as a heuristic, can provide new insights by conceptually connecting multiple domains of agency in energy transitions, including discursive and material aspects, across different global contexts. Our hope is that identifying potential agency in this way supports work to improve the social equity outcomes of energy transitions globally.
Subject(s) Agency; Energy justice; Institutional work; Social equity; Sociotechnical imaginaries; Sociotechnical transitions; Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment; Nuclear Energy and Engineering; Fuel Technology; Energy Engineering and Power Technology; Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
Language en
Relation 2214-6296
Type of publication Article
Format application/pdf
Rights info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess
Identifier Energy Research and Social Science 82, 1-10 (2021)
Repository Utrecht - University of Utrecht
Added to C-A: 2022-06-08;10:44:38