Conceptualizing Germany S Energy Transition: Institutions, Materiality, Power, Space

This is the first book toexplore ways of conceptualizing Germany's ongoing energy transition. Althoughwidely acclaimed in policy and research circles worldwide, the Energiewende is poorly understood interms of social science scholarship. There is an urgent need to delve beyonddescriptive accounts of policy implementation and contestation in order tounpack the deeper issues at play in what has been termed a 'grand societaltransformation.' The authors approach this in three ways: First, they select andcharacterize conceptual approaches suited to interpreting the reordering ofinstitutional arrangements, socio-material configurations, power relations andspatial structures of energy systems in Germany and beyond. Second, they assess the value ofthese concepts in describing and explaining energy transitions, pinpointing theirrelative strengths and weaknesses and exploring areas of complementarity andincompatibility. Third, they illustrate how these concepts can be applied - individually and incombination - to enrich empirical research of Germany's energy transition.