Towards an Energy Politics In‐Against‐and‐Beyond the State: Berlin's Struggle for Energy Democracy |
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| Authors: | James Angel |
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| Affiliation: | Department of Geography, King's College London, London, UK |
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| Abstract: | Social movements in struggle around energy are currently developing an imaginary of “energy democracy” to signify the emancipatory energy transitions they desire. Deploying a scholar‐activist perspective, this paper contributes to debates around the concretisation of the energy democracy imaginary by exploring the relationship of energy democracy movements to the state. To do so, I focus on the experiences of the Berliner Energietisch campaign, which in 2013 forced (and lost) a referendum aiming to extend—and democratise—the local state's role in Berlin's energy governance. Drawing on relational theories of the state, I argue that it is productive to read Berliner Energietisch as enacting an energy politics in‐against‐and‐beyond the state. In making this argument, I draw out implications for theoretical and strategic debates around the commons and the state. |
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| Keywords: | energy the state activism the commons urban politics energy transition |
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