Energy democracy: Goals and policy instruments for sociotechnical transitions

By Matthew J. Burke, J. Stephens. 2017

421 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Energy democracy is an emergent social movement advancing renewable energy transitions by resisting the fossil-fuel-dominant energy agenda while reclaiming and democratically restructuring energy regimes. By integrating technological change with the potential for socioeconomic and political change, the movement links social justice and equity with energy innovation. Through a policy mix lens, this research examines the energy democracy agenda in the United States to understand how and to what extent the mix of policy instruments currently proposed among energy democracy advocates corresponds to the overarching goals of the movement. This assessment compares 22 policy instruments to 26 intended outcomes for energy democracy. The mix of policy instruments holds potential for advancing renewable energy transitions based on the combined goals of resist-reclaim-restructure, although current policies relate unevenly across the set of intended outcomes. Bolstering the energy democracy agenda will likely require developing new policies, strengthening existing policies, and integrating efforts to simultaneously resist dominant energy systems while also supporting their democratic and inclusive replacement. This research increases the visibility of the energy democracy movement and clarifies and assesses the core claims and policy instruments advanced by its advocates, contributing to policy design for renewable energy transitions and energy democracy.

Subfields: Global and Planetary Change, Pollution, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/70a26ffa7cc0989ec8d7f3dcc78dcda5427e55a3

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Global and Planetary Change

1. J. Stephens
2. Simon N. Jorgenson
3. S. Hall
4. Matthew J. Burke
5. Mark Davis
6. Beth White
7. Donal Brown

In Pollution

1. J. Stephens
2. Matthew J. Burke
3. S. Hall
4. Mark Davis
5. Donal Brown

In Sociology and Political Science

1. J. Stephens
2. S. Hall
3. Mark Davis
4. Donal Brown
5. Matthew J. Burke
6. Simon N. Jorgenson
7. Beth White

Citations in the corpus

• Environmental education in transition: A critical review of recent research on climate change and energy education (2019, background): “…to strengthen community control of energy, weaken corporate control, and resist fossil-fuel reliance because it contributes to a concentration of wealth and power in society as well as all the negative health, safety, and environmental implications (Adlong & Dietsch, 2015; Burke & Stephens, 2017).”
• Political power and renewable energy futures: A critical review (2017, background): “Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Energy Research & Social Science journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/erss Original research article Political power and renewable energy futures: A critical review Matthew J. Burkea,⁎, Jennie C. Stephensb a Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGi”
• What is prosumerism for? Exploring the normative dimensions of decentralised energy transitions (2020, background): “Such understandings are also present in contemporary literature surrounding socio-technical transitions [76].”