Narratives and Recognition Justice in Energy Governance

Abstract

Energy transitions are not driven and governed solely by technologies, infrastructures and policy instruments, but also by narratives: how energy problems are framed; who is addressed as legitimate subjects of governance; and what forms of knowledge, agency and participation are recognised. Across diverse political and socio-economic contexts, prevailing narratives on energy governance are often criticised for relying too heavily on technology, economics, and narrow, exclusionary notions of the acting individual (Szulecki, 2018). These narratives, often featuring an “ideal” participant in the energy transition in the form of a rational, affluent, technologically-savvy consumer, risk marginalising other social positions, lived experiences, and collective forms of action. Such narratives have far-reaching implications for the justice, legitimacy and effectiveness of energy transition policies (Sovacool et al., 2017). This panel brings together contributions that examine such narratives of energy governance from the perspective of recognition justice, understood as how individuals and social groups are acknowledged, represented and valued in energy policy and decision-making. Specifically, the panel examines how (mis)recognition unfolds as a mechanism through political narratives and institutional practices. It also questions the relative power distributed, alternative narratives have to influence energy governance and transitions (Hayer, 1997; Genus et al., 2021). Finally, the panel links research on energy justice to political science debates on legitimacy, institutional mediation and the constitutive power of politics (Schmidt, 2008; Jenkins et al., 2016). Contributions address four interrelated analytical dimensions: 1. Framing and responsibility: How governance narratives shape expectations about who is “capable” or “responsible” and how these framings interact with social inequalities to position some citizens as legitimate participants while others remain invisible (Fraser, 2000). 2. Participatory and experimental processes: How engagement, community-led initiatives, and collective visioning can reshape social relations and open spaces for alternative values and knowledge (Chilvers & Kearnes, 2016; Tidwell & Tidwell, 2018) and when these practices promote genuine recognition and when they reproduce existing institutional hierarchies. 3. Policy instruments and everyday practices: How certain instruments such as demand side management or digital automation embed technocratic assumptions about household flexibility and control and how such instruments may be experienced in different social contexts and influence how policy measures are ultimately perceived, accepted or rejected (Shove, 2010; Goggins et al., 2022). 4. Global perspectives: How recognition justice unfolds in contexts characterised by energy poverty and limited access, particularly in the Global South, and how claims of (recognition) justice need to be considered in the context of specific material and historical conditions (Bouzarovski & Petrova, 2015; Höffken et al., 2021). 5. The role of research: How research processes mediate narratives and recognition justice, including how dominant/alternative narratives are identified, constructed, analysed, and communicated, as well as reflexive inquiry into how research is implicated in the power dynamics of policy narratives (Turnhout et al., 2020). Overall, this panel promotes a multi-layered understanding of recognition justice and narratives in energy policy that goes beyond the question of “who gets what” in distribution to address questions of “who is seen” and “whose narratives count and prevail”.

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