Rethinking the governance of energy infrastructure: Scale, decentralization and polycentrism

Goldthau, Andreas

doi:10.1016/j.erss.2014.02.009

Cited by 393 publications

(201 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Yet, an increasing number of scholars, citizens and policy-makers advocate the transition towards a more decentralized configuration, involving geographically dispersed and small-scale generation units located close to consumers [1]. Decentralized systems are said to present several advantages over centralized ones, including reduced costs for transmission and distribution systems, reduced grid power losses, more efficient data management systems and a larger share of zero-carbon technologies [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What drives the development of community energy in Europe? The case of wind power cooperatives

Bauwens

Gotchev

Holstenkamp

2016

Energy Research & Social Science

358

212

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Abstract:The dominant model of energy infrastructure has historically been conceived in a very centralized fashion, i.e. with hardly any citizen involvement in energy generation. Yet, increasing attention is being paid to the transition process towards a more decentralized configuration. This article examines the factors likely to foster citizen and community participation as regards wind power cooperatives in Denmark, Germany, Belgium and the UK. Using Elinor Ostrom's Social-Ecological System Framework, the analysis highlights a double-edged phenomenon: prevailing and growing hostility towards cooperatives, on the one hand, and, on the other, strategic reactions to this evolution. What comes out indeed is that, throughout most of these countries, the emergence of some coordinated inter-organizational actions among cooperatives enables them to survive in their critical environment.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What drives the development of community energy in Europe? The case of wind power cooperatives

Bauwens

Gotchev

Holstenkamp

2016

Energy Research & Social Science

358

212

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“…In the second group, comprising 30% of responses, are roles associated with a bidirectional relationship, where agencies and other actors work together, for example, in "capacity-building" in communities, "enabling cooperation" with other actors, "incentives", "learning" from society, "accountability", and "participation". This result is relevant because the literature about participation, social learning, and governance suggests that it is necessary to move from a paternalistic and hierarchical model of the state to a mutual understanding through a bottom-up perspective in order to achieve better results in planning, mitigation and adaptation, and public policy processes in general [75,77,78].…”

Section: Inquirymentioning

confidence: 97%

Unpacking Resilience for Adaptation: Incorporating Practitioners’ Experiences through a Transdisciplinary Approach to the Case of Drought in Chile

et al. 2016

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Current debate on the implementation of resilience in addressing climatic impacts calls for more pragmatic means of reducing losses. In this study we aimed to generate context-specific knowledge about resilience factors for addressing the impacts of drought, with the expectation that bringing forth experiential knowledge on how impacts were addressed in the past would shed light on what constitutes key resilience factors for practitioners working in urban contexts. The study was carried in three of the largest cities in Chile: Santiago, Concepción, and Valdivia. The analytical framework consists of urban and regional resilience incorporating transdisciplinary approaches applying the Resilience-Wheel tool, combined with participatory methods for the co-production of knowledge and qualitative content analysis of documents and workshops. Results show that key determinants of building resilience to drought were: improving education and access to information, enhancing preparedness, promoting technology transfer, reinforcing organizational linkages and collaboration, decentralizing governance, and encouraging citizen participation. The Resilience-Wheel was useful for navigating the conceptual complexity and diversity of perspectives inherent among social actors. The transdisciplinary approach allowed us to co-produce key knowledge that can be applied to build resilience in future, through a bottom-up approach that bridges the science-policy interface.

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“…References to the polycentric perspective have been made to a limited degree in previous work on governance of energy systems (Sovacool 2011;Goldthau 2014;Koster and Anderies 2013) but without significant or systematic development.…”

Section: Elinor Ostrom and Complex Thinkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polycentric Governance Approaches for a Low-Carbon Transition: The Roles of Community-Based Energy Initiatives in Enhancing the Resilience of Future Energy Systems

Bauwens

2017

Complex Systems and Social Practices in Energy Transitions

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An understanding of the resilience of energy systems is critical in order to tackle forthcoming challenges. This chapter proposes that the polycentric governance perspective, developed by Vincent and Elinor Ostrom, may be highly relevant in formulating policies to enhance the resilience of future energy systems. Polycentric governance systems involve the coexistence of many selforganized centers of decision making at multiple levels that are formally independent of each other, but operate under an overarching set of rules. Given this polycentric approach, this chapter studies the roles of community-based energy initiatives and, in particular, of renewable energy cooperatives, in enhancing the institutional resilience of energy systems. In this perspective, the chapter identifies three major socio-institutional obstacles, which undermine this resilience capacity: the collective action problem arising from the diffusion of sustainable energy technologies and practices, the lack of public trust in established energy actors and the existence of strong vested interests in favor of the status quo. Then, it shows why the development of community-based energy initiatives and renewable energy cooperatives may offer effective responses to these obstacles, relying on many empirical illustrations. More specifically, it is argued that communitybased energy initiatives present institutional features encouraging the activation of social norms and a high trust capital, therefore enabling them to offer effective solutions to avoid free riding and enhance trust in energy institutions and organizations. The creation of federated polycentric structures may also offer a partial response to the existence of vested interests in favor of the status quo. Finally, some recommendations for policymakers are derived from this analysis. This paper is an author post-print version of a book chapter published with Springer.Please cite as follows: Bauwens, T. (2017). 'Toward polycentric low-carbon transition: The roles of community-based organizations in enhancing the resilience of energy systems'.

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Rethinking the governance of energy infrastructure: Scale, decentralization and polycentrism

Cited by 393 publications

References 27 publications

What drives the development of community energy in Europe? The case of wind power cooperatives

What drives the development of community energy in Europe? The case of wind power cooperatives

Unpacking Resilience for Adaptation: Incorporating Practitioners’ Experiences through a Transdisciplinary Approach to the Case of Drought in Chile

Polycentric Governance Approaches for a Low-Carbon Transition: The Roles of Community-Based Energy Initiatives in Enhancing the Resilience of Future Energy Systems

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