Local governance of energy transition: sustainability, transactions and social ties. A case study in Northeast France

ABSTRACT

This paper tackles the process of energy transition from a transactional perspective. It addresses the governance of energy transition by studying its local actualizations, moving beyond purely technical and normative readings. The paper shows that through the local socio-technological energy systems, sustainability governance filters down to the level of individual, everyday behavior, thus questioning the link between public and private spaces, especially regarding the issue of housing. Going beyond the results commonly yielded by transition studies, which favor large-scale analysis, it details how the discourse of citizen involvement, which often boils down to a mere call to control one’s individual energy consumption, conceals environmental inequalities, confirming the socioeconomic divide materialized in deprived areas such as public housing estates or remote rural areas. From a methodological standpoint, the analysis is based on four case studies in Northeast France, in more or less privileged areas, and in both urban and rural environments: the renovation of a heating network in the public housing estate of Cité de l’Ill, north of Strasbourg; the solar energy systems designed for property owners in Plobsheim, a residential suburb of Strasbourg; the energy-efficient equipment set up in a public housing estate in the city of Saint-Dié, in the Vosges; and citizen participation in a cooperative program to finance wind turbines in the small Alsacian city of Saâles, in a mountain rural area. The paper draws on the results of these sociological investigations, carried out using field observations, questionnaires and interviews.

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainable development
• energy transition
• renewable energy
• housing
• local governance
• social transactions
• environmental inequalities
• sociology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. For discussions of various approaches to growth and sustainability, see Victor and Dolter (2017).

2. https://transitionnetwork.org/ [accessed 17 February 2018].

3. ‘For the new field of Transition Studies, […] transitions refer to large-scale transformations within society or important subsystems during which the structure of the societal system fundamentally changes’ (Verbong and Loorbach 2012, p. 6).

4. http://ec.europa.eu/energy/en/topics/energy-strategy-and-energy-union/2050-energy-strategy [accessed 17 February 2018].

5. ‘Renewable Energies Plan: planning tools and social acceptability of renewable energies’ (http://www.plan-ee.eu/) [accessed 17 February 2018], and ‘Design and industrialization of building units with high environmental and social energy efficiency’. These projects involved a team of social sciences researchers, especially Guillaume Christen (Christen et al. 2014) and Marie Mangold (Hamman et al. 2014).

6. https://www.insee.fr/fr/information/2021902 [accessed 17 February 2018].

7. http://www.strasbourg.eu/fonctionnement-ville-cus/communaute-urbaine-strasbourg/presentation-cus [accessed 17 February 2018].

8. http://www.idex.fr/; http://www.lemoniteur.fr/article/electricite-de-strasbourg-s-unit-a-dalkia-pour-les-services-31097971 [accessed 17 February 2018].

9. With perverse effects on silviculture (essences are prioritized according to profitability).

10. http://www.ercisol.com/ [accessed 17 February 2018].

11. France is legally obliged to turn 80% of its meter stock to smart by 2020, and 100% by 2022, following a European Commission directive issued on 13 July 2009.

12. http://www.europe1.fr/societe/cinq-choses-a-savoir-sur-les-compteurs-intelligents-2927714 [accessed 17 February 2018].

13. Also see the landlord’s website: http://www.habitationmoderne.org/fr/Energie-57.html [accessed 17 February 2018].

14. http://www.20minutes.fr/strasbourg/1102599-20130218-renovation-thermique-cite-ill [accessed 17 February 2018].