Governing the conflicted commons: democracy in the Indian tribal belt

This paper problematises the question of how policy-relevant knowledge is produced, how it can include concerns of all stakeholders, and how it informs political processes, by focussing on a specific case. To do so, it surveys literature on impacts of resource expropriation and processes of exclusion on indigenes in central eastern India. It examines how a shift to local democracy in recent decades can potentially facilitate inclusion of concerns of indigenes and the environment in natural resource governance within this resource-rich but poverty-stricken conflict zone. It argues that, in order to enable democratic resource governance, evidence-based knowledge must inform changes in institutional processes. It makes the case for a doctoral project being undertaken during 2012-15 that seeks to generate such knowledge. The project emphasizes the importance of understanding the relationship between decentralisation reforms and indigenous communities’ rights and participation in natural resource governance, in order to enable inclusive governance in a conflict zone of economic, political, ethnic and ecological interests. This paper justifies why this knowledge is required and describes the methodological approach adopted to generate it. It also preliminarily identifies gaps in the political process, explaining why it is challenging for such research to facilitate better implementation even if it does feed back into more evidence-based policy

Digitalisation and social inclusion in multi-scalar smart energy transitions

Activity generated around smart energy transitions risks undermining a basic spatial planning principle: create better places for inhabitants. The possibilities unleashed by digitalisation have enigmatic force. Stepping back from this techno-centrism, this article asks: where are the people in these visions? How can energy sector digitalisation become people-centric and inclusive? It employs a multi-scalar approach to examine social inclusion in case studies of two smart energy transitions: electricity sector digitalisation in Lisbon, and mobility sector digitalisation in Bergen. This reveals how planning and implementing sustainability transitions can exacerbate existing inequalities, but equally offers opportunities to enable inclusive smart energy transitions.publishedVersio

Cross-sectoral metrics as accountability tools for twin transitioning energy systems

As energy systems become ever more closely intertwined in order to enable electrification and real-time coordination across sectors, tracking the nature of change to ensure accountability during complex implementation processes presents novel challenges and requires renewed thinking on data infrastructures. For instance, sectors like electricity generation, electricity distribution and electrified urban transport have begun to interact more closely and with more spatial complexity than ever before. Correspondingly, this conceptual article articulates the evolving relationship between cross-sectoral metrics (CSM) and twin transitions (i.e., digitalisation and decarbonisation) of energy systems in the Anthropocene. It argues for development of explicitly cross-sectoral metrical analysis as an accountability tool for shifts to equitable, low-carbon energy systems. It draws on three pertinent fields of study—calculative logics, institutionalisation, and degrees of digitalisation—to provide the basis for a theory of transformative metrics for application to evolving energy systems. Scholarship on calculative logics offers insights on the nature of metrics, work on institutionalisation helps understand the dynamics of integrating novel metrics into evolving sociotechnical systems, and consideration of degrees of digitalisation ensures mindfulness of differences across contexts. Resulting insights can serve as diagnostic tools to inform timely monitoring and implementation of twin transitions for energy systems. Work across three distinct lines of scholarship is specified to enable conceptual development, and an empirical case study is sketched to show how to operationalise and apply an analytical framework. This delineation serves as a step towards a theory of transformative metrics, for integrative study of CSM for accountable twin transitions.publishedVersio

Governing the conflicted commons: democracy in the Indian tribal belt

This paper problematises the question of how policy-relevant knowledge is produced, how it can include concerns of all stakeholders, and how it informs political processes, by focussing on a specific case. To do so, it surveys literature on impacts of resource expropriation and processes of exclusion on indigenes in central eastern India. It examines how a shift to local democracy in recent decades can potentially facilitate inclusion of concerns of indigenes and the environment in natural resource governance within this resource-rich but poverty-stricken conflict zone. It argues that, in order to enable democratic resource governance, evidence-based knowledge must inform changes in institutional processes. It makes the case for a doctoral project being undertaken during 2012-15 that seeks to generate such knowledge. The project emphasizes the importance of understanding the relationship between decentralisation reforms and indigenous communities’ rights and participation in natural resource governance, in order to enable inclusive governance in a conflict zone of economic, political, ethnic and ecological interests. This paper justifies why this knowledge is required and describes the methodological approach adopted to generate it. It also preliminarily identifies gaps in the political process, explaining why it is challenging for such research to facilitate better implementation even if it does feed back into more evidence-based policy

Legitimating power: Solar energy rollout, sustainability metrics and transition politics

Increasing recognition of the irrefutable urgency to address the global climate challenge is driving mitigation efforts to decarbonise. Countries are setting targets, technological innovation is making renewable energy sources competitive and fossil fuel actors are leveraging their incumbent privilege and political reach to modulate energy transitions. As techno-economic competitiveness is rapidly reconfigured in favour of sources such as solar energy, governance puzzles dominate the research frontier. Who makes key decisions about decarbonisation based on what metrics, and how are consequent benefits and burdens allocated? This article takes its point of departure in ambitious sustainability metrics for solar rollout that Portugal embraced in the late 2010s. This southwestern European country leads on hydro and wind power, and recently emerged from austerity politics after the 2008–2015 recession. Despite Europe’s best solar irradiation, its big solar push only kicked off in late 2018. In explaining how this arose and unfolded until mid-2020 and why, the article investigates what key issues ambitious rapid decarbonisation plans must address to enhance social equity. It combines attention to accountability and legitimacy to offer an analytical framework geared at generating actionable knowledge to advance an accountable energy transition. Drawing on empirical study of the contingencies that determine the implementation of sustainability metrics, the article traces how discrete acts legitimate specific trajectories of territorialisation by solar photovoltaics through discursive, bureaucratic, technocratic and financial practices. Combining empirics and perspectives from political ecology and energy geographies, it probes the politics of just energy transitions to more low-carbon and equitable societal futures.publishedVersio

Drivers of Scalar Biases: Environmental Justice and the Portuguese Solar Photovoltaic Rollout

Studying the dynamics of solar photovoltaic (PV) rollout can generate insights on how policies enable and constrain energy transitions. This energy source has low carbon emissions, and has rapidly become economically competitive. This combination makes it one of the fastest growing energy technologies globally. Yet its rollout is spatially uneven, and slowed down by drivers other than cost and environmental impact, namely energy infrastructure, regulatory inertia, and political dynamics. These drivers of scalar biases make the rollout of solar energy along environmentally just lines challenging. This article analyzes the solar PV rollout in solar-rich Portugal during 2017–2020 to illustrate these drivers. The way solar PV layers on top of existing electric grid infrastructure determines the spatiality of its rollout. The path dependence of sectoral regulations modulates which actors are able to drive this technological diffusion. The particular political moment, unfolding contestation, and orchestrated consensus are decisive for both the rate and manner of growth of solar PV energy. The three drivers promote large-scale solar PV, whereas small-scale projects for households and communities remain limited. Empirical study of these drivers and how they combine in a specific context are key to understand the scalar environmental justice effects of policies for energy transitions.acceptedVersio

Social and technical differentiation in smart meter rollout: embedded scalar biases in automating Norwegian and Portuguese energy infrastructure

Within the energy geographies debate on the uneven scalar effects of energy transitions, this article addresses the under-examined, increasing intersection of automation and energy transitions. Using a comparative case of national smart meter rollouts—the deployment of distributed energy monitors whose diffusion constitutes the foundation for layering and automating energy infrastructure—it draws on two contrasting studies. One features an urban living lab during Norway’s rapidly completed smart meter rollout to 2.9 million consumers; the other targets the national scale in Portugal during its recently accelerated two-fifths completed smart meter rollout across six million consumers. The article identifies twin scalar biases: (i) social aspects of automation are controlled at higher scales while users are responsibilised for them at the household scale, and (ii) both control over and responsibility for technical aspects are restricted to higher scales. It empirically specifies how these scalar biases modulate socio-technical infrastructural interventions, such as smart meters. On this basis, it argues that embedding social and technical differentiation due to such scalar biases risks dehumanising technical aspects while detechnicising social aspects in this early intersection of energy transitions and automation.publishedVersio

Legitimating power: Solar energy rollout, sustainability metrics and transition politics

Increasing recognition of the irrefutable urgency to address the global climate challenge is driving mitigation efforts to decarbonise. Countries are setting targets, technological innovation is making renewable energy sources competitive and fossil fuel actors are leveraging their incumbent privilege and political reach to modulate energy transitions. As techno-economic competitiveness is rapidly reconfigured in favour of sources such as solar energy, governance puzzles dominate the research frontier. Who makes key decisions about decarbonisation based on what metrics, and how are consequent benefits and burdens allocated? This article takes its point of departure in ambitious sustainability metrics for solar rollout that Portugal embraced in the late 2010s. This southwestern European country leads on hydro and wind power, and recently emerged from austerity politics after the 2008–2015 recession. Despite Europe’s best solar irradiation, its big solar push only kicked off in late 2018. In explaining how this arose and unfolded until mid-2020 and why, the article investigates what key issues ambitious rapid decarbonisation plans must address to enhance social equity. It combines attention to accountability and legitimacy to offer an analytical framework geared at generating actionable knowledge to advance an accountable energy transition. Drawing on empirical study of the contingencies that determine the implementation of sustainability metrics, the article traces how discrete acts legitimate specific trajectories of territorialisation by solar photovoltaics through discursive, bureaucratic, technocratic and financial practices. Combining empirics and perspectives from political ecology and energy geographies, it probes the politics of just energy transitions to more low-carbon and equitable societal futures.publishedVersio

Scalar biases in solar photovoltaic uptake : Socio-materiality regulatory inertia and politics

Solar photovoltaic (PV) rollout constitutes a rapid global energy transition. Driven by cost reductions, the technology supports climate mitigation in regions with high energy development levels like Europe and new energy capacity in economies like India. Consequent pressure for rapid rollout has attendant justice effects. This chapter adopts a methodological approach from a study of such effects in two Indian states to explore solar rollout governance in Portugal. The need to achieve national targets, combined with barriers to small-scale projects, drives scalar biases. Based on an ethnographic study, the chapter discusses three drivers of scalar biases in solar rollout: (i) the socio-materiality of energy infrastructure, (ii) regulatory inertia and path dependence and (iii) political influence on energy development. These drivers apply to multi-scalar governance. They introduce scalar biases in aspects that condition solar rollout, such as grid transmission infrastructure investments, energy community legislation and solar auctions. The chapter argues for cross-fertilising such insights, notably from global South contexts that have led these developments to global North contexts. This can inform energy policies on how to balance rapid solar rollout with salutary justice effects. This is especially important in financially constrained energy sectors that are common in many solar rollout contexts.publishedVersio