Power Dynamics in the new gas and green raw materials transition

Programme group Transnational configurations, conflict and governance

This NWO funded project focuses on the fundamental mechanism that strongly influences all energy transition processes: the interplay between strategies of entrepreneurs who strive to introduce novelty and strategies of incumbents who have strong vested interests and therefore often resist these processes of change.

NWO funded project, November 2010-November 2014

Energy transition processes take a very long time. One of the reasons is the huge inertia of existing systems and the unwillingness of very powerful regime actors to quickly move into new directions.

Entrepreneurs with novel ideas often do not posses the power to break through these inert techno-institutional complexes. Therefore they need to develop specific strategies in order to become successful.

The two types of actors differ strongly in their respective power positions and therefore very different strategies are likely to be pursued.

The government is often confronted with the strategies of both type of actors and needs to find a balance in dealing with both interests. Surprisingly hardly any information on this issue can be found in literature while this is crucial information to accelerate transition processes.

Main research question 

• What are the main strategies deployed by both regime players and entrepreneurs to either slow down or accelerate energy transition processes and what strategies are optimal for the government to deal with these? 

Three empirical domains are studied that strongly differ in the structure of the incumbent regime:

1. the automotive sector
2. the oil and gas regime 
3. the built environment

Published by  AISSR

27 June 2013