Andrea Bues from the Leibniz Institute for Regional Development and Structural Planning (IRS) will present her research focusing on one major gap in the literature on wind energy controversies: the role of power.

Many countries now promote the expansion of renewable energy facilities. However, especially proposals to install wind turbines are often met with forceful opposition. Her PhD project aims at investigating empirically by which mechanisms and strategies power relations manifest and potentially change in energy transitions. The focus is on local disputes on wind turbines and the research is designed as a comparative case study between cases of wind energy disputes in Ontario and the East-German federal state of Brandenburg. One aspect that will be studied study are the changes of the institutional design of renewable energy policy in Ontario and Brandenburg and how it affects power relations in decision-making processes over wind turbines. Another aspect will be the capability of anti-wind groups to influence decision-making. The major theoretical approach will be the emerging concept of depoliticisation which will be linked to concepts of power. The concept of depoliticisation offers an approach to analyse how and where specific topics are made subject of political decision-making.

When?   September 11, 2014, 3:00-4:30 pm

Where? Kaneff Tower 764, York University, Toronto