European Energy Poverty: Agenda Co-Creation and Knowledge Innovation (ENGAGER 2017-2021) Case study: Innovation and energy poverty policies

This document aims at contributing to the reflection of innovativeness of policies to alleviate energy poverty by providing a review of the literature that identifies and summarizes novel approaches and measures currently being implemented. This review is thus meant to offer a contribution to knowledge on the state-of-the-art concerning policies to tackle energy poverty, as well as a contribution to knowledge exchange across different contexts and disciplines on the most advanced strategies and solutions. In order to accomplish this, the review initially searched documents on energy poverty focused on innovation, according to a set of criteria for the selection of these documents. Yet, since it was found that there is a lack of research on what can be considered innovative or not in tackling energy poverty, a second method to assess innovation concerning this topic was employed. A short survey was conducted among the international network of experts related to this COST Action. Based on the results of this survey, which identified approximately 60 policies considered innovative by the experts, a procedure was developed to evaluate their characteristics. The outcome of this “innovation check” is a matrix that identifies the dimensions and sub-dimensions that are common to innovative policies to alleviate energy poverty.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The critical role of trust in experiencing and coping with energy poverty : Evidence from across Europe

Trust is a fundamental ingredient of prosperous democracies. In Europe, trust in existing elected democratic institutions is fading while authoritarian nationalist movements grow. Experiences of neglect, ignorance, and inferiority are one explanation for this. This paper explores the link between the experiences of households in a state of energy poverty and their trust in institutions and social networks. Using qualitative data from ten different European countries, we show that a lack of trust in both public and private institutions is widespread among energy-poor households. Our interviewees show distrust in various dimensions. In their contacts with institutions, they report experiences of powerlessness, bad and unfair treatment, and feelings of inferiority. While some interviewees do trust single individuals within institutions, others trust only their own social networks and some have no trust in anyone. We further show how trust in networks or (people in) institutions can strengthen the coping capacities of energy-poor households while a lack of trust even cuts people off from the support they could attain and thus deepens their state of energy poverty.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

The Divergent Paths of the Ethnic Parties in Post-Communist Transitions

Transition, Ethnic parties, Representation, Post-communism, D72,

The impact of legislative reforms on party system change

What is the impact of legislative reforms on party system change and stability? This article provides a detailed account of how rules impact on party system stability. We trace all legislative reforms relevant to political parties, which include amendments to electoral laws, party finance law and party laws. The central argument is that party system change does not depend solely on changes to electoral laws or on value changes within societies. Changes to the other party laws are also key to explaining changes in the structure of competition. The analysis provides a longitudinal study on the impact of rule change on relevant dimensions of the Romanian party system. The results draw attention to the importance of permissive and restrictive rules and their implementation on the process of party system change and stability

Explaining ethnic mobilisation in post-communist countries

The complex dynamics of inter-ethnic relations in post-communist countries leads to a puzzle: why do some ethnic minorities mobilise to obtain political representation whereas others do not? We use qualitative comparative analysis to capture complex causal patterns explaining the formation of ethnic parties and to analyse the combined effect of social, economic and political variables. Our article bridges a significant gap in the existing literature that usually focuses on simple explanations for the existence of ethnic parties. The analysis reveals that the political mobilisation of ethnic minorities is explained by institutional elements often underemphasised in existing theories and research

Addressing energy poverty through technological and governance innovation

Abstract Background Energy poverty has gained much traction over the last decades, holding both high multidisciplinary conceptual value, but also profound implications from a social policy perspective, being closely linked to the quality of life and well-being. The goal of our study is to evaluate recent measures aimed at tackling energy poverty in Europe by analysing the extent to which they are innovative on technological and governance dimensions. We do so by building an analytical tool which combines evaluation criteria along these two dimensions and by employing it for the analysis of twenty measures aimed at tackling energy poverty that have been designed and employed in ten European countries. These measures were selected with the support of an expert panel. Results We identify three categories of innovative measures aimed at alleviating energy poverty: (1) measures with high technological scores, (2) measures with high governance scores, and (3) measures with high scores on both axes. The measures in the third category incorporate a variety of actors in sustainable partnerships and implement monitoring tools throughout the process, complementary to incorporating new technologies into the domestic sphere and promoting consumer awareness and consumption pattern transformation. Conclusions Our findings allow for a better perspective on the shape innovation takes in the context of energy poverty policies. Based on our research, we argue that combining technological innovation and governance innovation has a better chance of generating more articulate and scalable, and potentially successful measures with respect to their purpose of tackling energy poverty, since the drivers of energy poverty rarely pertain to only technology or only governance

Looking Back to Look Forward: Reflections from Networked Research on Energy Poverty

Energy poverty is a far-reaching concept that intrinsically bridges numerous fields of study, ranging from engineering to anthropology and medical science to social psychology. The profound implications of energy poverty on the quality of life globally have also led to a wide range of metrics and policies aimed at measuring it and alleviating it, albeit with limited success. Using a mixed methods approach, our network has conducted research to advance knowledge and interpretations of energy poverty and boost scientific outputs' capacity to shape knowledge-based policies. In this article, we critically review this extensive research endeavor, as well as its results. We build on the conceptual, methodological, and policy dimensions of energy poverty research to set up pathways toward a new, interdisciplinary research and policy agenda on energy poverty mitigation better equipped to provide meaningful answers to the challenges posed by the current ongoing energy crisis