Hydropower development is a threat to many communities around the world, especially in developing countries, where the interests of private capital dominate often at the expense of exploiting the local people. This thesis presents a case study of anti-Nenskra dam activism in Chuberi and Nakra, two villages located in the Upper Svaneti region, Georgia. Through a lens of postsocialism, this analysis assesses the anti-dam activism within its systemic and historical context, arguing that the Nenskra dam is a product of Georgia’s post-Soviet neoliberalism and the Svan protests signify a rejection of this model of development.

Cette étude porte une analyse comparative entre quatre projets de coopération gazière en Amérique du Sud et Asie du Sud-Est. Elle repère le rôle du leadership en soulignant des questions qui importent aux acteurs et des facteurs qui conditionnent les stratégies pour former les coopérations gazières régionales. Le principal but du plan méthodologique est de développer un cadre d'analytique de leadership et de construire une narrative analytique des quatre projets de coopération gazière. Ce faisant, l'étude traite analytiquement des sources primaires et secondaires qui sont renforcées par des entretiens d'expert ainsi que des observations sur le terrain. L'analyse comparative montre que des acteurs impliqués sont multiples et complexes. Leurs interactions se produisent à deux niveaux : politique et commercial. D'ailleurs, les deux niveaux sont affectés par trois contextes: politique, économique, et technique. Au niveau politique, des acteurs sont préoccupés de la stratégie pour formuler la vision et les objectifs du projet de coopération. Puisque l'Etat est l'acteur autoritaire, l'étude constate que la consultation avec d'autres acteurs est absente. Au niveau commercial, des acteurs publiques et privés sont en tête de la formation des partenariats ainsi que de s'engager dans le lobbying pour trouver à la fois du soutien politique et financier. Tel engagement intense entre des acteurs révèle un type de leadership particulier, nommé leadership par mandataire (proxy leadership). En dernière analyse, trois catalyseurs : le pouvoir, la gouvernance, et la culture, mènent l'approvisionnement en leadership en Amérique du Sud et Asie du Sud-Est. Tandis que le pouvoir et la culture sont plus forts en Amérique du Sud, la gouvernance a une présence assez faible dans les deux régions. / This study compares four natural gas pipeline cooperation projects in South America and Southeast Asia. It identifies the role of leadership by highlighting issues that matter to actors and factors that condition strategies to form regional gas cooperation projects. The study's key methodological objective is to develop a leadership analytical framework by synthesizing regime and leadership theories. It then constructs analytical narratives of the four natural gas pipeline cooperation projects. Toward this end, various primary and secondary sources are exploited, which are complemented by expert interviews and field observation. The comparative analysis shows that actors involved in regional gas cooperation projects are multiple and complex. Their interactions occur under two processes: political and commercial. These processes are further affected by three contexts: political, economic, and technical. At the political level, actors are preoccupied with the strategy to formulate vision and objectives for the cooperation project. Because states are dominant at this stage, consultation with larger stakeholders is often absent. At the commercial level, public and private actors are at the forefront forming partnerships and engaging themselves in intense lobbying for bath political and financial support. Such intense relationship between these actors reveals a particular leadership type called proxy leadership. The overall provision of leadership in both South America and Southeast Asia is driven by three catalysts: power, governance, and culture. While power and culture are more crucial in South American case studies, both regions seem to share rather weak governance in forming regional gas cooperation projects.

Mon étude s’est concentrée sur la prise en compte d’intérêts commerciaux dans la politique énergétique publique des années 2000, la Turquie agissant comme un acteur privé, privilégiant les profits à court terme sur d’autres bénéfices plus indirects. Cette découverte a soulevé une nouvelle question sociologique, celle de savoir quel environnement politique a pu faire émerger cette orientation mercantile, et comment. J’ai identifié comme différents facteurs l’accès à l’économie de marché, l’orientation économique accrue des politiques, l’accès de nouveau acteurs à la politique, et les changements institutionnels qui ont permis la mise en œuvre du changement, notamment la réforme administrative en profondeur qui a eu lieu depuis les années 1990. C’est ainsi que j’ai choisi, pour évaluer le poids des réformes institutionnelles sur la politique, d’examiner ici le cas de la Turquie pendant les négociations du Projet de Corridor Sud (-Southern Energy Corridor Project- ou SECP) sous l’angle des conséquences directes ou indirectes qui apparaissent lorsque l’administration étatique évolue. / This thesis explores the question of what changes when state bureaucracy changes, via an analysis of the Turkish government’s policy making during the negotiations for the Southern Energy Corridor Project (SECP). A technical analysis of the SECP in the international energy diplomacy context is first presented and – along with a historical contextualization of oil and gas transit projects in Turkey – provides inputs into a sociological analysis of how decisions were taken by the Turkish government. In the light of these analyses, I explored what the SECP process says about Turkish politics and what Turkey’s experience shows in relation to sociology literature. As I initially observed there was market-driven policy-making during the SECP process (which was new compared to antecedent technically-comparable-project decision-making process), I hypothesized a change had been realized in Turkish bureaucracy, causing a shift in dominant values and interest. Referring to literature on how bureaucracy’s dominant power over society limits liberalism, I claimed this process could replace a strong state with a modest state, and a weak society with a stronger one where the market economy and its values became dominant and more liberal and democratic politics could interact. However, I concluded this was not so: the market driven policy making observed during the SECP was an exception in this specific case and institutional changes surrounding the energy policy-making arena remained limited to the replacement of old actors and institutions with new ones. This created new forms of power motivated by short-term commercial benefits, instead of creating the conditions necessary for more liberal politics to interact.

O fornecimento de energia elétrica é uma função social do Estado outorgada às concessionárias. Preocupadas em manter padrões de qualidade e reduzir custos para atingir seu objetivo maior que é o lucro, as empresas de energia não se interessam pela extensão de seu serviço para atender populações rurais pobres. O governo do estado de São Paulo planejou uma política de eletrificação rural com o objetivo de promover a valorização social da vida no campo. Baseado em um modelo desenvolvido pelo Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social em parceria com a Universidade de São Paulo, foi proposto o programa \"Luz da Terra\", envolvendo vários novos atores e deixando para as concessionárias o papel de executar serviços de engenharia somente. Este trabalho analisa o processo de planejamento, o arranjo institucional e a prática de implantação desse programa em sua primeira fase. Os fracos resultados são atribuídos à falhas no arranjo institucional e nas ações de campo. O eixo do programa deslocou-se das comunidades e do poder local para as concessionárias. Em sua prática, o programa negou o modelo. Nesse contexto, são sugeridas medidas corretivas. / The electric energy supply is a State social matter granted to the utilities. Worried in to maintain quality patterns and to reduce costs to reach its larger objective that it is the profit, the utilities are not interested in the extension of its service to assist poor rural populations. The state of São Paulo government has planned a rural electrification politics aimed to promoving the social valuation of the life in rural areas. Based on a model developed by the Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social in partnership with the Universidade de São Paulo, the program \"Luz da Terra\" was proposed it, involving several new actors and passing to the utilities the task of executing engineering services only. This work analyses the planning process, the institutional arrangement and the practice of that program in its first phase. The weak results are attributed to mistakes in the institutional arrangement and in the country actions. The program axis moved from the communities and the local power to the utilities. In its practice, the program denied the model. In that context, this work suggests actions to correct it.

As cooperativas de eletrificação rural são agentes que sempre estiveram à margem do setor elétrico e que agora devem se regularizar, adaptando-se aos condicionantes do serviço público de energia elétrica decorrentes da Lei de Concessões de 1995. Este trabalho faz a avaliação do aparato de regulação das atividades das cooperativas de eletrificação rural brasileiras e da política pública de regularização aplicada em São Paulo. O foco da avaliação é o cidadão rural, o cidadão que consome energia elétrica, e o cidadão que está ainda excluído do acesso ao serviço de eletricidade. A interpretação do problema e o estudo do processo de regularização levaram à constatação da existência de uma situação de impasse. Demonstra-se a tese de que a atitude do órgão regulador perante a tarefa que a lei lhe impõe cria um paradoxo em que as cooperativas são deixadas fora do alcance da regulação, com prejuízo maior para o cidadão que mora em sua área de atuação. Em particular, no momento em que todo brasileiro acaba de ganhar a garantia do seu direito de acesso à eletricidade, o cidadão que mora na área das cooperativas não tem a proteção do Estado para fazer valer esse seu direito. O trabalho oferece uma proposta acadêmica de alternativa de saída para esse impasse institucional, baseada na busca do equilíbrio entre os agentes. / The rural electric cooperatives are agents who have always been on the edge of the electric sector. Now, they must be regularized to the new rules of the electric energy public service established by the 1995 Concessions Law. This work provides an evaluation of the Brazilian rural electric cooperatives regulation apparatus and the regularization public policy applied in São Paulo. The evaluation focus is the rural citizen, the electric energy consumer and the citizens who have been excluded from this public service. The interpretation of the problem and the study of the regularization process has led to the evidence that the situation reached an impasse. The thesis is that the attitude of regulatory agencies create a paradox where the cooperatives are not covered by the regulation policies with damage to citizens in these areas. Particularly, given that the Brazilian citizens have won the right of electricity access, the citizen who lives in the cooperative area have no protection by State to do this right effective. This work offers an academic proposal to break this institutional impasse, based on the search of the agents equilibrium.

As cooperativas de eletrificação rural são agentes que sempre estiveram à margem do setor elétrico e que agora devem se regularizar, adaptando-se aos condicionantes do serviço público de energia elétrica decorrentes da Lei de Concessões de 1995. Este trabalho faz a avaliação do aparato de regulação das atividades das cooperativas de eletrificação rural brasileiras e da política pública de regularização aplicada em São Paulo. O foco da avaliação é o cidadão rural, o cidadão que consome energia elétrica, e o cidadão que está ainda excluído do acesso ao serviço de eletricidade. A interpretação do problema e o estudo do processo de regularização levaram à constatação da existência de uma situação de impasse. Demonstra-se a tese de que a atitude do órgão regulador perante a tarefa que a lei lhe impõe cria um paradoxo em que as cooperativas são deixadas fora do alcance da regulação, com prejuízo maior para o cidadão que mora em sua área de atuação. Em particular, no momento em que todo brasileiro acaba de ganhar a garantia do seu direito de acesso à eletricidade, o cidadão que mora na área das cooperativas não tem a proteção do Estado para fazer valer esse seu direito. O trabalho oferece uma proposta acadêmica de alternativa de saída para esse impasse institucional, baseada na busca do equilíbrio entre os agentes. / The rural electric cooperatives are agents who have always been on the edge of the electric sector. Now, they must be regularized to the new rules of the electric energy public service established by the 1995 Concessions Law. This work provides an evaluation of the Brazilian rural electric cooperatives regulation apparatus and the regularization public policy applied in São Paulo. The evaluation focus is the rural citizen, the electric energy consumer and the citizens who have been excluded from this public service. The interpretation of the problem and the study of the regularization process has led to the evidence that the situation reached an impasse. The thesis is that the attitude of regulatory agencies create a paradox where the cooperatives are not covered by the regulation policies with damage to citizens in these areas. Particularly, given that the Brazilian citizens have won the right of electricity access, the citizen who lives in the cooperative area have no protection by State to do this right effective. This work offers an academic proposal to break this institutional impasse, based on the search of the agents equilibrium.

O fornecimento de energia elétrica é uma função social do Estado outorgada às concessionárias. Preocupadas em manter padrões de qualidade e reduzir custos para atingir seu objetivo maior que é o lucro, as empresas de energia não se interessam pela extensão de seu serviço para atender populações rurais pobres. O governo do estado de São Paulo planejou uma política de eletrificação rural com o objetivo de promover a valorização social da vida no campo. Baseado em um modelo desenvolvido pelo Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social em parceria com a Universidade de São Paulo, foi proposto o programa \"Luz da Terra\", envolvendo vários novos atores e deixando para as concessionárias o papel de executar serviços de engenharia somente. Este trabalho analisa o processo de planejamento, o arranjo institucional e a prática de implantação desse programa em sua primeira fase. Os fracos resultados são atribuídos à falhas no arranjo institucional e nas ações de campo. O eixo do programa deslocou-se das comunidades e do poder local para as concessionárias. Em sua prática, o programa negou o modelo. Nesse contexto, são sugeridas medidas corretivas. / The electric energy supply is a State social matter granted to the utilities. Worried in to maintain quality patterns and to reduce costs to reach its larger objective that it is the profit, the utilities are not interested in the extension of its service to assist poor rural populations. The state of São Paulo government has planned a rural electrification politics aimed to promoving the social valuation of the life in rural areas. Based on a model developed by the Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social in partnership with the Universidade de São Paulo, the program \"Luz da Terra\" was proposed it, involving several new actors and passing to the utilities the task of executing engineering services only. This work analyses the planning process, the institutional arrangement and the practice of that program in its first phase. The weak results are attributed to mistakes in the institutional arrangement and in the country actions. The program axis moved from the communities and the local power to the utilities. In its practice, the program denied the model. In that context, this work suggests actions to correct it.

Denna avhandling undersöker hur omställningen av energisystemet har konstruerats i den riksdagspolitiska debatten, med fokus på förnybara energikällor. Utgångspunkten är det riksdagsbeslut som fattades 1980 och som innebar en omställning till förnybara energikällor. Studien bygger på textanalys av framför allt riksdagsprotokoll. Energipolitik är en ständig dragkamp kring definitioner och kategoriseringar och vilka ideal som bör utgöra politikens mål. I den riksdagspolitiska energidebatten om omställningen av energisystemet är det långt ifrån självklart vad som betraktas som problem, lösning och mål. Aktörer interagerar och förhandlar och skapar på så vis mening. Tre teoretiska begrepp är centrala i analysen av denna process: problematisering, obligatorisk passagepunkt och gränsobjekt. Den riksdagspolitiska debatten handlar om mer än bara vilka energikällor som är bäst lämpade. Livsavgörande framtidsfrågor har knutits till energiproduktionen. I den energipolitiska debatten väcks också frågor om kunskapsproduktion, hur energikällor och olika tekniska lösningar ställs mot varandra och blir argument i debatten om rationalitet och sanning. Förnybara energikällor har varit del av såväl utopiska som dystopiska framtidsbilder. De kan vara ett argument för det lilla och småskaliga, mot tillbakagång och det antimodernistiska, eller för utveckling, modernisering och det framtidsorienterade. Således handlar debatten om omställningen av energisystemet också om vad som utgör ”det goda samhället”. / This thesis examines how the energy system transformation has been constructed in the Swedish parliamentary debate, with a focus on renewable energy sources. The study is based on text analysis and the primarily material is parliamentary protocols. Energy politics is a constant tug-of-war over how to classify things, what categorizations to make and what ideals to turn into goals. Actors interact and negotiate, creating meaning and definitions. I draw upon three theoretical concepts to describe this process: problematization, obligatory passage point and boundary object. The decision to transform the energy system has been decisive for Swedish politics. In addition, it raises questions concerning knowledge production, pitting various energy sources and technical solutions against each other and making them into arguments in the debate on rationality and truth. Renewable energy sources serve as a basis for both utopian and dystopian visions of the future. Renewable energy sources can be used in multiple ways rhetorically, to advocate the local and small scale, to caution against regression and the anti-modern, and to uphold development, modernization and an orientation towards the future. Thus, the debate on what energy sources should be chosen also becomes a debate about the future and what constitutes “the good society”.Energy politics is a constant tug-of-war over how to classify things, what categorizations to make and what ideals to turn into goals. Actors interact and negotiate, creating meaning and definitions. I draw upon three theoretical concepts to describe this process: problematization, obligatory passage point and boundary object.

I denna avhandling studeras en ny teknik för att hantera växthuseffekten. Den nya tekniken heter koldioxidavskiljning och lagring (CCS) och granskades av FN:s klimatpanel 2005 och tillskrevs då möjligheterna att stå för 15-55% av alla CO2-reducering fram till 2100 och detta till en 30% lägre kostnad än vad som annars vore möjligt. EU är en framträdande pådrivare av CCS och för fram att växthuseffekten inte kan hanteras utan att CCS implementeras skyndsamt. CCS beskrivs i dessa sammanhang som en hållbar teknik. CCS är emellertid förbunden med långtidslagring, en betydande teknisk komplexitet och tillämpas främst på kolkraftverk. Storskaliga satsningar på CCS kan medföra att kolanvändningen ökar. Syftet med avhandlingen är att analysera de vetenskapliga och politiska ansträngningarna att visa att CCS är en eftersträvansvärd teknik för att hantera växthuseffekten. Utifrån perspektivet ekologisk modernisering och genom granskning av studier av vetenskapliga rapporter, artiklar i massmedia, politiska dokument och intervjuer genomförs studien. Scenerier och prognoser har en central funktion för att kunna påvisa att CCS är en eftersträvansvärd teknik. I flera av dessa scenarier framställs en närmast linjär teknikutveckling och flera betydelsefulla problem och hinder bortses från. CCS framstår som en teknik med stor teknisk och ekonomisk potential och i massmedia beskrivs CCS ofta som oumbärlig. En mer nyanserad bild framträder vid intervjuer med CCS-experter då fler osäkerheter och hinder lyfts fram. Förståelsen för varför denna teknik för stöd av många starka aktörer blir även tydligare. Den dominerande beskrivningen av CCS egenskaper och inverkan på energisystemen ligger i linje med det som är utmärkande för den ekologiska modernisering och således även för det dominerande sättet att bedriva energi- och klimatpolitik idag. / In this dissertation an emerging technology to manage climate change is studied. The technology is carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) and was reviewed by the IPCC in 2005. IPCC claims that CCS could contribute 15–55% to the cumulative mitigation effort worldwide until 2100 and reduce the costs of stabilizing CO2 concentrations by 30%. The EU promotes CCS and believes that climate change cannot be managed unless CCS is promptly implemented. In this context CCS is labelled as a sustainable technology. However CCS deals with long-term waste disposal, a significant technological complexity and is meant to be installed mainly in coal-fired power plants. Large scale implementation of CCS might lead to a rise in coal usage and concerns are raised this will impede the development of renewable energy. The aim of this dissertation is to analyze the scientific and political efforts to show that CCS is a rational and viable solution to the climate change problems. The study is conducted from the perspective of ecological modernization and is undertaken through a review of scientific reports, mass media articles, political documents and interviews. Scenarios and prognoses have a central position in making a future of large-scale CCS implementation plausible: through the scenarios, a linear development trend is visualized in which technological and scientific problems are assumed to be solved as CCS is implemented. CCS is described as a technology with substantial potential and is in the mass media often pictured as indispensable. A more nuanced picture appears when analyzing interviews with CCS-experts. The understanding of why this technology is supported by several influential actors is deepened. The dominating description of CCS and impact on the energy systems is compatible to the characteristics of ecological modernization and thus also to the predominating way of practising energy and climate politics today.

This thesis offers a political geography of unconventional energy development through a study of a particular fossil fuel resource called oil shale. Having long occupied a critical place in the politics and economy of certain states, most notably in Estonia, oil shale is now widely known as an ‘unconventional’ resource that is yet to become technically possible, commercially viable and socially acceptable to exploit. Following the movement through which oil shale becomes both unconventional and conventional, the thesis traces the resource through a series of geo-scientific, economic and political interventions. This study is based on analysis of technical literature and policy documents along with ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and site visits conducted in Estonia, Colorado, Utah, Jordan, London and Brussels. Drawing together relational accounts of natural resources in political ecology and economic geography with insights from Science and Technology Studies, this project both contributes to critical research on the carbon economy and to recent debates on the concepts of materiality, anticipation, and marketization in social sciences. The thesis proposes a relational conceptualization of resource materiality, situating oil shale in multiple and conflicting forms which derive from geographically disparate practices in both resource assessment and technological development. The future of oil shale exploitation is not pre-determined by the process of global resource decline, nor is it precluded by international demands to move towards lower-carbon futures. Rather, it is determined through the conjunction of different future-oriented economic and political calculations that are entangled with resource materials and associated technological systems. Developing a non-essentialist account of markets as socio-technically distributed arrangements, the thesis argues that these rival calculations influence the design of market rules for both energy and emissions trading. The thesis concludes that what counts as ‘unconventional’ is not given, but continues to be both created and contested at the same time as it is ‘conventionalized’.