Exporting Energy Democracy? Comparing Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Electricity in India and Morocco

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

Abstract

This paper analyzes “energy democracy” using the STS concept of a "sociotechnical imaginary". It is shared by disparate groups, including Black Lives Matter, Native American, and environmental activists; trade unionists; and scholars. While there are different underlying political motivations for advocating for energy democracy among these groups, they share a liberal conception of energy democracy enabled by small-scale, distributed energy configurations.

We explore the applicability of this energy democracy imaginary to two countries in the Global South—India and Morocco—in which illiberal versions of energy democracy can be observed. Comparisons of the colonial and postcolonial electricity imaginaries in India and Morocco also make visible the likely heterogeneity of notions of energy democracy between North and South and among countries in the Global South.

We demonstrate how components of energy democracy constitute a sociotechnical imaginary through analyzing scholarship, documents, and videos produced by nongovernmental organizations advocating for energy democracy. Then, we draw out and compare India’s and Morocco’s colonial and postcolonial electricity imaginaries through interviews, fieldwork, and primary and secondary document analysis. We question the uncritical application of sociotechnical imaginaries of energy democracy in the Global South, and argue that it is not fungible and must be amended to meet different political contexts. We end with a reflection on energy democracy discourses mobilized by international development officials and social entrepreneurs within the World Economic Forum and United Nations to show how even in Western contexts, energy democracy is being hollowed out of its original, radical political content.

Authors

• Sharlissa Moore, Michigan State University

• Monamie Bhadra Haines, Nanyang Technological University