Bottom-Up Energy Transition Narratives: Linking the Global with the Local? A Comparison of Three German Renewable Co-Ops
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In: Sustainability, Vol. 10, No. 4, 924, 22.03.2018.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Bottom-Up Energy Transition Narratives
T2 - Linking the Global with the Local? A Comparison of Three German Renewable Co-Ops
AU - David, Martin
AU - Schönborn, Sophia
N1 - This article belongs to the Special Issue Putting Sustainability Transitions into Spatial and Socio-Cultural Context)
PY - 2018/3/22
Y1 - 2018/3/22
N2 - Bottom-up transition narratives help to enable the implementation of energy transitions. Yet, scholarship shows that little light has been shed on how bottom-up transition narratives change during the course of transition. By proposing a framework that envisions bottom-up transition narratives, we analyze narratives on three German bottom-up renewable energy initiatives to address this gap. Relying on semi-structured interviews with innovators and adopters, we show that, during the establishment phase, the analyzed narratives take non-place-bound factors like climate change as a point of contention. At the same time, narratives underscore place-bound factors as, for instance, civil society’s knowledge and participation as means for an alternative, non-rent-seeking energy system. During the adoption phase, the analyzed narratives travel easily. This represents a paradox because bottom-up energy transition narratives move beyond their local, place-bound origin in order to be reproduced in different spatial settings. By so doing, bottom-up energy transition narratives diverge from their original message. By falling short on the promotion of citizen’s participation, they begin to promote sociotechnical systems that differ little from the sociotechnical systems from competing, rent-seeking energy industries during the innovation adoption pathway. Our comparative approach outlines how bottom-up energy transition narratives adapt to this trade-off during innovation adoption events. We discuss what this means for bottom-up energy transitions and conclude that bottom-up energy transition narratives are faced with a fixity–travel dilemma during the adoption phase.
AB - Bottom-up transition narratives help to enable the implementation of energy transitions. Yet, scholarship shows that little light has been shed on how bottom-up transition narratives change during the course of transition. By proposing a framework that envisions bottom-up transition narratives, we analyze narratives on three German bottom-up renewable energy initiatives to address this gap. Relying on semi-structured interviews with innovators and adopters, we show that, during the establishment phase, the analyzed narratives take non-place-bound factors like climate change as a point of contention. At the same time, narratives underscore place-bound factors as, for instance, civil society’s knowledge and participation as means for an alternative, non-rent-seeking energy system. During the adoption phase, the analyzed narratives travel easily. This represents a paradox because bottom-up energy transition narratives move beyond their local, place-bound origin in order to be reproduced in different spatial settings. By so doing, bottom-up energy transition narratives diverge from their original message. By falling short on the promotion of citizen’s participation, they begin to promote sociotechnical systems that differ little from the sociotechnical systems from competing, rent-seeking energy industries during the innovation adoption pathway. Our comparative approach outlines how bottom-up energy transition narratives adapt to this trade-off during innovation adoption events. We discuss what this means for bottom-up energy transitions and conclude that bottom-up energy transition narratives are faced with a fixity–travel dilemma during the adoption phase.
KW - Sustainability Science
KW - Adoption of innovation
KW - Bottom-up
KW - Energy transition
KW - Narrative
KW - Space
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85044343125&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/89e127b3-56b0-3915-9621-d2706ccea07a/
U2 - 10.3390/su10040924
DO - 10.3390/su10040924
M3 - Journal articles
VL - 10
JO - Sustainability
JF - Sustainability
SN - 2071-1050
IS - 4
M1 - 924
ER -