The Politics of Social Impact Assessment in the Mexican Renewable Energy Sector

• In Event: Power, Drivers, and Narratives in Sustainable Energy Transitions - I

Abstract

The conventional narrative of energy transitions, internalized in the institutions that design and implement energy projects, is framed in terms of meeting technological and economic challenges, paying little attention to the broader sociopolitical context. However, worldwide, energy transitions are generating substantial social opposition, suggesting the need for an expanded analytic framework that incorporates the complex ways that energy transitions interact with societies. Building on sociotechnical systems theory, we address this gap by analyzing the sociopolitical controversies surrounding the effectiveness of Social Impact Assessments (SIA) in the renewable energy sector in Mexico. Based on discourse analyses of 30 semi-structured stakeholder interviews, we argue that the SIA widely used to evaluate projects’ sociocultural impacts was created in response to the opposition of NGOs and grassroots organizations to renewables, yet only government and corporate actors participated in its design. They have shaped a unique form of SIA that does not guarantee the basic demands of opposition groups, including prior consultation, access to information on projects’ impacts, and shared social benefits. Consequently, SIA has not provided an institutional pathway for including local concerns regarding projects’ social impacts. The controversy around SIA is rooted in different actors’ perspectives on how to institutionally mediate relationships between Mexican energy transition plans and local communities. We contribute to energy STS scholarship by focusing our understanding on how social groups interact in the co-production of a new political artifact, as well as on the different visions behind controversies in this ongoing energy transition.

Author

• Nain Martinez, UC Berkeley