Weathering the Climate Crisis? A New Theoretical Approach to the Energy Transition

• In Event: 50620 - Section on Environmental Sociology Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 12: Environmental Temporalities and Transitions

Abstract

Scholars and policymakers advocate more robust state intervention to expand green energy production, addressing environmental concerns and socioeconomic welfare amid the climate crisis. Suggestions for state intervention to de-neoliberalize the energy sector, however, do not apply to energy sectors where energy state-owned enterprises (SOEs) play a significant role. What role does the state play in pursuing a green agenda? How does a state-led green agenda differ from a market-driven one? These questions require us to account for the variations between a green agenda that is state- or market-driven for energy regime shifts.
This paper proposes an new concept to address the fundamental question of what energy is and how it is related to the state and market. This reconceptualization work is important primarily because we need to bring three distinct interdisciplinary approaches to energy policymaking in conversation and suggest an outcome of social inquiry for comparative research. I argue that we should conceptualize energy policymaking as a regime comprised of infrastructural and subsidiary aspects. The regime concept suggests that transforming an energy regime involves more than policy adoption—it requires altering accumulated infrastructural and subsidiary systems across administrations, which will benefit future comparative research on how and why energy regime transitions vary.

Author

• I-Lun Shih, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor