The German Energy transition at the local level - A Discourse Network Analysis
for identifying fostering and hindering discourse patterns and network
structures
The German Energiewende is an enormous and far-reaching project, consisting of
a huge variety of goals that aim in transiting Germany to a reduced and
greener energy consumption. While the far-reaching goals are set by the
federal government, achieving the goals is crucially dependent on their
implementation at the local level. Empirically a huge variation in the
implementation of this goals at the local level can be observed. This
variation can only partly be explained by independent preconditions of the
state (such as average income, size or land-use). This paper studies more
subtle varying factors, that might have an influence on the successful
implementation of renewable energies. Based on the agenda setting approach and
the Advocacy Coalition Framework, this paper analyzes the relation between
discourses, local policy network structures and the success of a region in
implementing renewable energies. Therefor a Discourse Network Analysis (DNA)
is conducted which identities differences in discourse contents and discourse
network structures in four counties (two successful and two unsuccessful).
Results support the hypotheses that the discourse content is strongly
dependent on whether a county is rural or urban. Furthermore results show that
the discourse network structures of successful counties tend to become more
open and consensual over time, while in unsuccessful counties the discourse
network structures become more clustered. This is a strong indicator for the
connection between discourses, their network structures and the success of the
successful implementation of the energy transition
