Breaking the Rules! Energy Transitions as Social Innovations

Session chair: Prof. Dr. Kristine Kern, Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space (IRS)

Today, it is widely acknowledged that cities have become important players in energy and climate governance at national, European, and global scale. Leading cities did not only start earlier but have also set very ambitious goals. Cities and city networks have become active players in energy and climate governance. This panel focuses on different dimensions of the spread of social and political innovations in and among cities, the differences between leaders, followers and laggards, and the options to replicate and upscale urban policy experiments and thus close the gap between them. This includes, first, the spread of social and political innovations within cities, i.e. the transfer of local pilot and demonstration projects to other parts of the city and the options and challenges to govern such transfers. Second, this panel concentrates on the relationship between leading cities, followers and laggards in multi-level governance because urban energy transitions are needed in a wide range of cities and towns. In Europe, most leading cities in climate and energy governance are located in Northern Europe, Continental Europe, and the UK. Although leading cities such as Freiburg, Stockholm and Amsterdam share many characteristics, the development in each of these cities is path-dependent. Transition paths can be traced back several decades and may differ considerably, but certain types of transition pathways for leading cities and drivers for social and political innovations can be identified. The dynamic between leaders, followers, and laggards in multi-level energy and climate governance is driven not only by internal but also by external factors, particularly the participation of cities in city networks and their embeddedness in national, European and global energy and climate governance. While leading cities became active even before the states in which they are located, followers depend far more on national and European programs, such as national subsidy programs. In addition, there is evidence that upscaling of local experiments may require national minimum standards and strategies to coordinate local action among small towns and villages. Papers in this panel will ask how leading cities, followers and laggards interact with each other and with other actors in multi-level governance systems to support the development and spread of social and political innovations in energy and climate governance.

Session chair: Dr. Timmo Krüger, Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space (IRS).

The growth-oriented development model causes socio-ecological crises (economic crises, increasing inequalities, climate change, loss of biodiversity and so forth). Thus, the development model itself is in crisis - i.e. more and more actors assume that the current institutions are not able to solve the socio-ecological problems. Against this background, it is obvious that an energy transition can only be sustainable (understood here as strong sustainability) if it is embedded in a comprehensive transformation of society through social innovations. However, a comprehensive transformation of society is in conflict with supposed constraints deriving from the imperative of economic growth and the normalization of an imperial mode of living (for the concept 'imperial mode of living' cf. Brand/ Wissen 2013). Accordingly, energy transitions are to a great extent technocratic projects, in which prevailing power relations and hegemonic structures remain unchallenged. Social criticism and claims for fundamental alternatives - that are discussed under the headings buen vivir, climate justice, degrowth or energy democracy etc. - remain marginalized. Nevertheless, in the course of politicizing processes counter-hegemonic alternatives can become more important. The quest for such opportunities and potentials of politicizing energy transitions is the focus of this session, which is based on a broad understanding of energy transitions (including politics of sufficiency as well as changes of cultural norms and institutional arrangements). Politicizing processes are driven by transformative politics. The term 'transformative politics' comprises very different networks, initiatives and social movements that work on popularizing social innovations. Their actions are transformative insofar as they don't ensconce themselves in a small niche, but aim at changing social values, norms and institutions (Calvário/ Kallis 2017: 599ff). Such transformative politics from below thrive to a large extent on locally embedded social innovations. In general, the localization or regionalization of economic cycles plays an important role in the debates about degrowth, energy democracy, sufficiency etc. At the same time, locally embedded innovations very often are integrated into global networks. Manzini (2013) calls this phenomenon "cosmopolitan localism". Submissions for presentations on the following issues are welcomed:

• How can one grasp, conceptionalize and operationalize transformative sociopolitical innovations from below?
• Which insights - regarding potentials and obstacles for politicizing energy transitions - can be gained from empirical studies on transformative sociopolitical innovations from below?
• What is the significance of re-localization processes for the aspired politicization of energy transitions?
• Is the concept 'cosmopolitan localism' suitable for grasping re-localization processes?