Project Details
Projekt
Renewable Energy and Local Governance in China
Applicant
Professorin Dr. Doris Fischer
Subject Area
Asian Studies
Term
from 2019 to 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 391467173
This subproject investigates how the fast deployment of renewable energies is influencing local governance in China. Due to the technical and physical characteristics of renewable energies, a successful energy transition requires a decentralised use of renewables. This, however, challenges the traditionally centralised Chinese energy system, as the Chinese central state cannot control the details of renewable energy use at the local level in every detail. As a result, the fast deployment of renewables and the decentralisation of the power system create areas of weak state governance – as defined by the research group – at the local level. Against this background, the subproject investigates how local communities in China are seizing the opportunities presented by institutional void and are organizing the intended transition to renewable energy use. How are they balancing conflicting goals and interests? Does the energy transition stabilize existing economic, social or political liminations or does it create new ones? Unlike earlier investigations into China’s energy sector or environmental policies that were primarily interested in assessing the success or failure of state policy implementation, this subproject focuses on the forms of local self-governance that are developing in order to address these challenges and opportunities.By analysing the processes of local governance, the subproject investigates how formal and informal rules evolve, and how these rules influence the relationship between local and state actors in the context of the energy transition. The subproject’s specific contribution to the research group, which intends to produce theoretical insight into local self-governance in areas of weak state governance at different times and in different regions, lies in addressing the aspect of changes in local governance triggered by a technological revolution.The subproject relies on insights from institutional theory and in addition refers to concepts of multi-level governance, which are both useful for characterizing the Chinese political system and central to the literature on transition management, which emphasizes the importance of local niches for political innovations.The subproject will result in two dissertations, which will be based on case studies in two Chinese regions (Jiangsu and Chongqing). The doctoral students will conduct the empirical research for their dissertations in parallel research stays in China but will focus on different analytical questions. The principal investigator (subproject applicant) will supervise the doctoral students and develop input for the theoretical work of the research group by conducting comparative analyses of the cases, combining this with insights from another ongoing DFG project and integrating the perspective of transition management research.
DFG Programme
Research Units
