The divergent diffusion of district energy systems in France and Alberta: state politics and the socio-material and socio-spatial construction of low-carbon transitions
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2018-12-20
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How do different state structures and urban and energy socio-material contexts explain the uneven diffusion of district energy systems (DES) in urban areas of France and Alberta between 2000 and 2014? To answer this question, this thesis analyses the processes inherent to low-carbon energy transitions through socio-spatial and socio-material lenses, considering power relations and state structure. At the intersection of urban planning and energy systems, DES proves practical to explore the nexus between low-carbon governance, energy governance, and urban governance. Theoretical frameworks employed in the analysis include 1) recent contributions from (urban) transition studies and socio-technical systems; 2) a Lefebvrian conceptualisation of socio-space and social changes; and 3) Jessop’s (1990, 2008) strategic-relational approach of state power. An original inter-scale comparative research allows for examining the uneven construction of low-carbon energy policies in France and Alberta, and their relations with state structures, and existing urban and energy systems. Jessop et al.’s Territory-Place-Scale-Network (TPSN) framework is mobilised to overcome the issues of commensurability and spontaneous comparison. These theoretical and methodological approaches provide a robust demonstration that the provincial scale in Canada, and the national scale in France, are the scales dominating the construction of low-carbon energy transitions and urban governance. Despite similar state powers, French and Albertan governments developed different state policies on low-carbon transition, highlighting selectivity in the exercise of state capacities. They differently engaged and enabled local urban governments and developed different state interventions on DES. In France, state-sponsored DES activated new channels of growth compatible with existing dominant socio-materialities; in Alberta, state-funded DES experiments failed to activate new channels of growth compatible with dominant socio-materialities. This thesis posits that selective construction of low-carbon policies depends on the material interests of dominant energy and state actors. In other words, the state does not seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by all means. Rather, it seeks to reproduce dominant socio-material status quo, adapting low-carbon policies to existing socio-material configuration. Ultimately, this thesis validates how the concepts of state structure and the TPSN framework can enrich the theorisation of space and power relations for (urban) transition studies.
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Nciri, A. S. (2018). The divergent diffusion of district energy systems in France and Alberta: state politics and the socio-material and socio-spatial construction of low-carbon transitions (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.