ABSTRACT

This handbook offers a comprehensive transdisciplinary examination of the research and practices that constitute the emerging research agenda in energy democracy.

With protests over fossil fuels and controversies over nuclear and renewable energy technologies, democratic ideals have contributed to an emerging social movement. Energy democracy captures this movement and addresses the issues of energy access, ownership, and participation at a time when there are expanding social, political, environmental, and economic demands on energy systems. This volume defines energy democracy as both a social movement and an academic area of study and examines it through a social science and humanities lens, explaining key concepts and reflecting state-of-the-art research. The collection is comprised of six parts:

1 Scalar Dimensions of Power and Governance in Energy Democracy

2 Discourses of Energy Democracy

3 Grassroots and Critical Modes of Action

4 Democratic and Participatory Principles

5 Energy Resource Tensions

6 Energy Democracies in Practice

The vision of this handbook is explicitly transdisciplinary and global, including contributions from interdisciplinary international scholars and practitioners. The Routledge Handbook of Energy Democracy will be the premier source for all students and researchers interested in the field of energy, including policy, politics, transitions, access, justice, and public participation.

1. Energy democracy: An introduction Part I: Scalar Dimensions of Power and Governance in Energy Democracy 2. Scalar dimensions of power and governance in energy democracy: Introduction 3. International energy governance: Opportunities and challenges for democratic politics 4. Comparing and contrasting the institutional relationships, regulatory frameworks, and energy system governance of European and U.S. electric cooperatives 5. Energy democracy at the scale of Indigenous governance: Indigenous Native American struggles for democracy, justice, and decolonization 6. Conceptualizing energy democracy using the multiple streams framework: Actors, public participation, and scale in energy transitions 7. Part One response Part II: Discourses of Energy Democracy 8. Discourses of energy democracy: Introduction 9. Energy security: From security of supply to public participation 10. The premise and the promise: "Energy poverty," capabilities, and the language of moral commitments 11. A brief excursion into the many scales and voices of renewable energy colonialism 12. Energy dominance 13. Part Two response Part III: Grassroots and Critical Modes of Action 14. Grassroots and critical modes of action: Introduction 15. The state or the citizens for energy democracy? Municipal and cooperative models in the German energy transition 16. Institutionalizing energy democracy: The promises and pitfalls of electricity co-operative development 17. A feminist lens on energy democracy: Redistributing power and resisting oppression through renewable transformation 18. Energy commons and alternatives to enclosures of sunshine and wind 19. Part Three response Part IV: Democratic and Participatory Principles 20. Democratic and participatory principles of Energy Democracy: Introduction 21. Splitting (over) the atom: Nuclear energy and democratic conflict 22. Public participation and energy system transformations 23. The complex relations between justice and participation in collaborative planning processes for a renewable energy transition 24. Participation in non-democracies: Rural Thailand as a site of energy democracy 25. Part Four response Part V: Energy Resource Tensions 26. Energy resource tensions: Introduction 27. Energy democracy, nuclear power, and participatory knowledge production about radiation risks 28. A fracked society: Multi-state media analysis of hydraulic fracturing in the USA 29. Latin American hydropower sacrifice zones 30. Postcards from the future: Hawaii’s transition to wind and solar energy 31. Part Five response Part VI: Energy Democracies in Practice 32. Energy democracies in practice: Introduction 33. Carbon neutral pledges: Public opinions, opportunities, and challenges for energy democracy 34. Beyond the Ivory Tower: Exploring the role of universities towards sustainable energy transitions in post-disaster environments 35. Low carbon energy democracy in the Global South? 36. Energy democracy in practice: Centering energy sovereignty in rural communities and Tribal Nations 37. Part Six response 38. Conclusion: The future of energy democracies 39. Afterword: Energy democracy, Episode 196 of Cultures of Energy Podcast