Energy Research & Social Science最新文献

Measuring the invisible: A framework for quantifying energy justice in urban communities in the United States

IF 6.9 2区经济学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Energy Research & Social Science

Pub Date : 2025-02-20 DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.103986

Ibrahim Adeiza Ahmed, Etiene Effiong, Lalitha Shanmugasundaram, Lucy Hummer, Robert W. Orttung, Ekundayo Shittu

A disconnect exists between theoretical conceptualizations of energy justice and the practical, policy-oriented approaches needed for real-world decision making and program implementation. Greater attention to quantifying energy justice will likely increase support for high-energy-burden households by facilitating the development of evidence-based, measurable, and targeted policy interventions to better address the needs of marginalized communities. To fill this gap, we develop a conceptual framework that integrates distributive, recognition, and procedural dimensions into quantifying energy justice using Washington, D.C. as a case study. The research employs a set of six metrics - energy burden, renewable energy access, service disconnections, system reliability, utility affordability programs, and public participation - to assess equity across socio-economic groups. Findings reveal that despite the presence of numerous affordability programs and the expansion of solar energy systems, energy affordability is still a significant challenge for low-income households, as evidenced by disproportionately high energy burdens and utility disconnections in vulnerable communities. Additionally, participation in energy forums lacks inclusivity, highlighting a procedural justice gap. Although measuring any form of justice can be challenging, this study's framework provides a simple yet practical model that can be extended to other cities to evaluate energy policy impacts.

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引用次数: 0

Challenging epistemic hierarchy: Reincorporating societal risks into nuclear safety goals

IF 6.9 2区经济学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Energy Research & Social Science

Pub Date : 2025-02-19 DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.103984

Shin-etsu Sugawara

Despite the absence of observable deaths directly attributable to radiation exposure from the Fukushima disaster, its societal repercussions have been profound. The prevailing nuclear safety framework, focused primarily on radiation dose, fails to fully address the varied and complex realities of nuclear disasters and their societal implications. Drawing on insights from science and technology studies and the study of ignorance, this research examines how nuclear professionals in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan have conceptualized and delimited “societal risks” within the discourse of safety goals. An analysis of these three national contexts reveals that widely accepted practices among nuclear safety practitioners—specifically, the use of mortality risk as a benchmark for risk comparison and envelope thinking in deterministic safety assessments—have contributed to an epistemic hierarchy that systematically marginalizes societal consequences beyond radiation-induced fatalities. To counteract this hierarchy, the study proposes three strategies for integrating societal risks into the formulation of safety goals: broadening the definition of fatalities to include disaster-related deaths, introducing new objectives aimed at safeguarding societal values and functions, and deliberately omitting specific lower-level quantitative goals to trigger a state of chronic unease regarding the imponderable aspects of nuclear risk.

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引用次数: 0

The politics of ambiguity: Local strategies in China's energy policy and governance

IF 6.9 2区经济学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Energy Research & Social Science

Pub Date : 2025-02-19 DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.103985

Kaiyuan Lin

This study investigates how local governments in China navigate energy efficiency and decarbonization policies, focusing on power rationing events in Y City and S City during 2020 and 2021. It introduces the concept of the “politics of ambiguity” to analyze how local governments exploit policy ambiguity—stemming from central mandates, resource constraints, and bounded rationality—to adapt and innovate under an authoritarian environmental governance framework. Y City's reactive, campaign-style governance highlighted how severe ambiguity can lead to inefficiencies and social disruptions. In contrast, S City's proactive, collaborative strategy demonstrated how ambiguity, when leveraged effectively, fosters stakeholder engagement, innovation, and more sustainable policy outcomes. This comparative analysis reveals the dual nature of ambiguity as both a constraint and an enabler, emphasizing its dynamic and iterative role in balancing central oversight with local discretion. The findings highlight the need for governance frameworks that support local adaptation and stakeholder participation, offering insights into China's energy transition and broader authoritarian governance contexts. By exploring ambiguity as an inherent feature of governance, this study sheds light on how local governments navigate central-local dynamics and adapt policy implementation strategies to address the challenges of energy transition within complex and evolving environmental governance systems.

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引用次数: 0

Men and the mask: Dramaturgical mask-wearing, masculinities and oilmen's ‘stoical’ emotional shielding practices in Scotland's offshore oilfields

IF 6.9 2区经济学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Energy Research & Social Science

Pub Date : 2025-02-19 DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.103983

Nicholas Norman Adams

Scotland's North Sea offshore oil-drilling-fields have long been stereotyped as sites reinforcing and reproducing unique forms of masculinities aligning with hegemonic masculinity (HM) descriptors: stoicism, competition, and conflict. Oilfields encompass near-all-male workplaces, requiring labour in difficult conditions, distancing from friends, family, and home life. Emerging research in oilfields has begun to resist the HM-stereotype in favour of complex understandings of masculinities, labour-and-identity performances. This work details findings from a lengthy ‘embedded’ ethnography of the UK Offshore Oilfield. Specifically, highlighting and discussing men's metaphorical ‘mask wearing’ practices: the process by which oilmen engaged in complex performances of masculinities that resist HM yet retained overt components of stoicism; a key HM-descriptor. This ‘masked’ stoicism was presented and performed in unique ways that bridged genuine and non-genuine performances of oilfield masculine identities and interconnected with resistances against risk-taking and supports for safety. Goffman's dramaturgical perspective is applied to deepen and interrogate findings. Salient implications for oilmen's wellbeing, masculinities theory and future study are put forward.

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引用次数: 0

Precarious lives: Exploring the intersection of insecure housing and energy conditions in Ireland

IF 6.9 2区经济学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Energy Research & Social Science

Pub Date : 2025-02-18 DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.103992

Richard Waldron , Shane Sugrue , Neil Simcock , Lorraine Holloway

This paper deploys the concept of ‘precariousness’ to examine the combined impacts of insecure and unaffordable housing and energy conditions on Irish households. Energy poverty is a major societal challenge as households struggle with rising energy costs and energy insecurity, which is then amplified by poor housing conditions, tenure insecurity and housing unaffordability. However, despite increasing research attention, the combined impacts of precarious housing and energy conditions are rarely considered together, or how this ‘double precarity’ might be distributed across social groups. Furthermore, it is unclear how precarious housing and energy conditions have evolved over time or in response to political-economic or energy market shocks. To address this gap, this paper connects debates within the energy poverty literature to more recent work on precarious housing. The paper develops a novel Housing-Energy Precarity Index (2020−2022) and applies it to data on Irish households (EU-SILC). It analyses the combined impacts of housing and energy precarity across housing tenures, demographic and socio-economic groups. We find that housing tenure is a particularly strong predictor of housing-energy precarity, and that private renters, low income groups, lone parents and younger persons (<25 years) are particularly exposed to this combined effect. The results will deliver pragmatic contributions for policy makers and practitioners at the intersection of housing and energy.

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引用次数: 0

Legitimacy transfer: A typology for multi-system interactions in sustainability transitions

IF 6.9 2区经济学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Energy Research & Social Science

Pub Date : 2025-02-18 DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.103958

Julius Wesche, Tomas Moe Skjølsvold

This perspective article introduces legitimacy transfer as a novel concept within the broader framework of multi-system interaction in socio-technical transitions research. Multi-system interaction examines how resources and dynamics flow across socio-technical system boundaries, shaping transitions to sustainability. Legitimacy transfer, which is a specific form of multi-system interaction, refers to the shift of perceived legitimacy between socio-technical configurations, thereby enabling actors to strategically influence societal acceptance, mobilize resources, and attract investment. The perspective develops a typology of legitimacy transfer with three forms: legitimacy sharing, where both configurations benefit; legitimacy exchange, where legitimacy flows reciprocally with no net gain or loss; and legitimacy capture, where powerful actors attract legitimacy across system boundaries by exploiting the weaker configuration. Two empirical cases illustrate these dynamics. The first examines how oil and gas incumbents in the United States use direct air carbon capture (DAC) technology to enhance the perceived sustainability of fossil fuel products, thereby potentially deteriorating the socio-political legitimacy of the emerging DAC system. The second focuses on Norwegian oil and gas actors that are electrifying offshore rigs with renewable energy, reframing fossil fuel operations as environmentally friendly. This article advances sustainability transitions research by integrating legitimacy transfer into the study of multi-system interactions, and providing a conceptual lens through which to understand power dynamics and strategic behavior. It underscores the importance of analyzing legitimacy flows to foster equitable and effective sustainability transitions.

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引用次数: 0

Which tariff to choose? How individual attitudes and preferences explain demand for flexible electricity tariffs in Germany

IF 6.9 2区经济学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Energy Research & Social Science

Pub Date : 2025-02-18 DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.103978

Vincent Weidenbörner , Marvin Gleue , Christoph Feldhaus , Madeline Werthschulte

Time-variant pricing and voluntary flexibility in private energy consumption have the potential to enhance demand sensitivity in electricity markets, playing crucial roles in the transition towards a greener energy system. This paper uses survey methods to examine the determinants of the stated willingness to adopt time-variant electricity tariffs. Based on a large population sample (N = 1200) from the most populous German federal state, North Rhine-Westphalia, we differentiate between the general willingness to adopt such tariffs and specific types, including time-of-use (TOU), critical-peak-pricing (CPP), and real-time-pricing (RTP) tariffs. Additionally, participants provide information on their willingness to adjust their electricity consumption in a timely manner. Our findings reveal that the stated willingness to adopt time-variant tariffs decreases as the potential price volatility increases. Moreover, there is a strong positive correlation between the willingness to adopt time-variant tariffs and the willingness to provide energy demand flexibility. The results of our analysis further indicate that early adopters of energy-efficient technologies and supporters of climate policies are more inclined towards time-variant pricing and providing flexibility in their electricity consumption. Economic preferences, such as loss aversion and present bias, appear to be particularly relevant for adopting the RTP tariff. These insights offer valuable guidance for promoting time-variant tariffs and flexible energy consumption, facilitating the adoption of efficient and sustainable energy systems.

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引用次数: 0

Adapting to limited grid capacity: Perceptions of injustice emerging from grid congestion in the Netherlands

IF 6.9 2区经济学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Energy Research & Social Science

Pub Date : 2025-02-18 DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.103962

Eva de Winkel , Zofia Lukszo , Mark Neerincx , Roel Dobbe

As renewable energy and electrification expand rapidly, many electrical distribution grids experience grid congestion. This situation leads to long waiting lists for parties seeking a new grid connection or aiming to expand their existing grid connection. In addition to traditional grid enforcements, distribution system operators are developing ways to manage congestion by steering electricity supply and demand. As grid congestion limits the previously abundant resource of grid capacity, the challenge of how to fairly distribute this now-scarce resource raises new questions about nondiscrimination and broader notions of justice. This study, grounded in energy justice, explores the distributive and procedural injustices people experience with increasing grid congestion. Our research focuses on The Netherlands, where more than 10,000 parties await new grid connections. Through 16 semi-structured interviews with people either affected by or involved in mitigating grid congestion, our thematic analysis reveals three key categories: (1) injustices arising from legacy policies, legislation, and social norms; (2) injustices due to unclear regulations, inconsistent policies, and policy gaps; and (3) injustices related to changing relationships between DSOs and affected parties. These findings highlight that grid congestion is fundamentally sociotechnical; while congestion is both constrained and addressed by technical factors, institutional and social factors such as legacy policies, social norms and communication, significantly influence perceptions of injustice. Our findings call for a comprehensive integration of justice principles within the institutional (e.g. regulation, policy, markets, social norms), technical (e.g. grid infrastructure, IT systems), and social (e.g. community engagement, communication) components of grid infrastructure.

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引用次数: 0

Does the public want green hydrogen in industry? Local and national acceptance of methanol and steel transitions in Germany

IF 6.9 2区经济学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Energy Research & Social Science

Pub Date : 2025-02-17 DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.103973

Sven Alsheimer

Public perceptions might determine the ease of the transition from a fossil-based to a green hydrogen-based production pathway in the industrial sector. The primary objective of this paper is to empirically identify the antecedents of the acceptance of two relevant industrial applications of green hydrogen: green methanol and green steel. The analysis, relying on linear regression models, utilises survey data from samples of residents near a chemical park and a steel plant (509 and 502 participants, respectively), contrasting them with a representative sample of 1502 individuals in Germany. The findings suggest that acceptance of the transitions to green methanol and green steel is high both locally and nationally. In all surveys, >59 % of the participants are in favour, while the share of those who are opposed to the respective transitions is below 9 %. Key antecedents of acceptance, which are conducive in all models, relate to individuals' attitudes towards green hydrogen and perceptions of the legitimacy of the industry actors involved, with varying results across legitimacy types. In general, the findings were similar across industrial applications and across levels of observation, but varied across regions. This study highlights the importance of civil society perceptions and suggests that relationship management efforts aimed at maintaining positive perceptions of industrial hydrogen applications should consider their broader physical and social contexts.

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引用次数: 0

Community-led solar energy technology adoption in rural Zambia: The role of observational learning and neighbor influence

IF 6.9 2区经济学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Energy Research & Social Science

Pub Date : 2025-02-17 DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.103972

Hillary Chanda , Eugene Mohareb , Michael Peters , Chris Harty

Solar PV technology holds significant potential for addressing energy access issues in rural Zambia. However, adoption rates remain low despite numerous interventions. This study explores the impact of community-based interventions, leveraging local networks, individual benefits, and peer consultation, on accelerating PV adoption and willingness to pay. The primary aim is to understand how social and individual benefits influence PV adoption intention and examine the relationship between visual exposure to solar technology and adoption intention. The research seeks to inform policies and interventions that promote sustainable energy access and socio-economic development in rural Zambia and similar contexts. Over 6 months, a qualitative study was conducted involving 58 interviews, 7 focus group discussions, pictorial evidence, and observational techniques. The study engaged 120 rural subsistence farmers and 16 commercial farmers across three regions of Zambia, using five local languages. The research employed the Rural Development Stakeholder Hybrid Adoption Model (RUDSHAM) that was developed for this research, which combines the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), and Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) theory. Findings reveal that shifting individual and community mindsets is crucial for project sustainability. Emphasizing individual benefits leads to broader community advantages as participation increases. Additionally, PV adoption and willingness to pay can be catalysed through systematic knowledge dissemination and leveraging peer and social influence. The study highlights the need for donors to deepen their understanding of poverty to make effective interventions. These insights provide a foundation for developing targeted strategies to enhance PV adoption in rural settings.

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引用次数: 0