Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Hess, David J.

Titel

Energy democracy and social movements: A multi-coalition perspective on the politics of sustainability transitions

Ist Teil von

• Energy research & social science, 2018-06, Vol.40, p.177-189

Ort / Verlag

Elsevier Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2018

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• •A multi-coalition perspective is used to examine interactions among organizations within a broader transition movement.•Four types of energy-transition coalitions are outlined based on different goals.•There is little organizational overlap across the four types of energy-transition coalitions.•Bridge brokers enable the process of integration across coalitions to occur.•When the integration of coalitions occurs, the frame of energy democracy helps to bridge diverse goals. This study develops research on social movements, political coalitions, and sustainability transitions with a multi-coalition perspective. The perspective begins with a typology of coalitions based on two pairs of goals—general societal change versus the sociotechnical transition of an industry or technological system, and sunrising versus sunsetting of systems and structures. Mapping the diversity of energy-transition coalitions makes it possible not only to identify the various wings of a broader industrial transition movement in a specified time and place but also to show the dynamics of how coalitions interact and change over time. Drawing on case studies of four energy-transition coalitions in New York State that approximate the four ideal types, the study shows differences in the goals, strategies, organizational composition, and frames of the coalitions. The study then shows the mechanisms that enable integration across coalitions, including the role of bridge brokers and new frames. As the networks of the energy-transition coalitions become more connected, the organizations make use of a wider set of frames, including the newer frame of energy democracy. Thus, the study develops an approach to the study of energy democracy that shows how it can serve as a frame that bridge brokers use to integrate coalitions.