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Creating a market:a critical realist approach to economics and the European Union internal energy market

The purpose of this study is to explore and understand the European Union internal energy market processes and how European Union constructs and justifies the markets. The idea is to understand where and how the internal energy market is created and what underlying of socio-political features effects this economic program. Growing exploitation of renewable energy and electricity, especially solar and wind, sources have created an impact on the economic policies. This study contributes to the discussion in market and energy market studies.

To further the analysis is done by analysing the EU’s formal legislation, politics and policies provided in the high-ranking European Commission documents. The study aims to understand and elaborate on the EU’s internal energy market policies and means (which can be regarded as economic) and how the EU avails these policies. Due to the centrality of the thought of sustainable development within the European region for decades, the European Union has been the forerunner in this development and the single energy market is in many ways a model example of this interdependency. Energy questions centralise these policies and the internal energy market combines them in one form.

The key topics of this study are renewable energy, the integrated market, harmonising regulation, the growing influence amongst consumers and public intervention as well as unbundling and transparency. I take critical realist stance on economics. Critical realism is a thought where reality exists outside of the human representation of it, but at the same time, it does not view social as a closed system. In this sense, economic agents are not isolated. In this study, the themes of energy and economics are deeply related to the thematics of environmental politics and their development. The nexus of environmental issues has been transforming towards the concepts of climate, energy, economy and even security.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:oulo.fi/oai:oulu.fi:nbnfioulu-201706062577
Date06 June 2017
CreatorsParkkari, M. (Mika)
PublisherUniversity of Oulu
Source SetsUniversity of Oulu
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typeinfo:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess, © Mika Parkkari, 2017

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