Energy Research & Social Science最新文献

{"title":"Energy justice without democracy? Energy transitions in the era of right-wing authoritarianism in Hungary","authors":"Noémi Gonda ,&nbsp;Péter József Bori","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104325","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104325","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Contemporary energy justice scholarship almost exclusively focuses on distributional, recognitional, and procedural justice concerns – how the ‘costs’ and ‘benefits’ of energy schemes are distributed, which sections of society are marginalised, and identifying processes for their remediation. However, while an escalating climate crisis spurs on unprecedented investments in green energy, undemocratic political regimes present a deeper challenge to energy transition projects. This article revisits the energy justice debate as a broader question of democracy, engaging purposefully with the democratic deficits in energy transition politics engendered by far-right authoritarian rule in Hungary. It does so through a mixed-methods approach that combines a policy evaluation of key national strategies on the energy transition, interviews with experts and stakeholders in energy poverty, and ethnographic field visits to energy-poor areas. Our results highlight how far-right authoritarian regimes can mobilise energy transition discourses, policies and projects to consolidate power, while simultaneously marginalising communities already at the edge of the society. Under regimes like Orbán's in Hungary, the prospects of energy democracy understood as participatory, pluralistic, and community-driven is not just hindered, but actively undermined. We suggest future energy justice scholarship to systematically engage with how energy projects intersect with far-right and other political economic forms through which democratic backslide is entrenched.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"129 ","pages":"Article 104325"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145119862","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Shards of light: Ruination, pollution, and the lived experience of solar waste in India","authors":"Ryan Stock ,&nbsp;Dustin Mulvaney","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104354","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104354","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Detritus from damaged, defective or decommissioned decarbonization infrastructures is rapidly accumulating at sites of energy transitions and already becoming a significant threat to local social and ecological systems. Despite India's recent regulatory frameworks for the proper management of e-waste, solar wastes threaten the health and vitality of exposed more-than-human populations and ecosystems. This study is motivated by the following research question: <em>How does the ruination of landscapes and the devaluation of labor produce value in solar waste?</em> Drawing upon empirical data derived from semi-structured interviews in Southern India and literature from the fields of energy geographies and discard studies, we advance the concept of <em>ulterior ruination</em>—a determined yet deferred technological breakdown for the present mitigation of the climate crisis with intentionally concealed socioecological dynamics to achieve particular political results. Solar waste recycling networks in India are an amalgam of formal and informal processes and networks of collection, reprocessing and disposal. Precarious laborers are exposed to occupational hazards when rendering the solar panels using crude tools. Irrespective of the attainment of decarbonization targets in the coming decades through solar development, the intergenerational injustices of solar afterlives will exacerbate the devaluation of informal laborers and exposed landscapes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"129 ","pages":"Article 104354"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145109426","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Where we stand on energy justice: Typologies from fuzzy ideal type analysis and interpretations from the Global South","authors":"Seunghyun Lee ,&nbsp;Inseok Seo ,&nbsp;Youhyun Lee","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104339","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104339","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Defining and operationalizing energy justice is essential for designing equitable and sustainable energy policies—especially in the Global South, where challenges such as limited energy access, institutional constraints, and climate vulnerability are acute. This study investigates how energy justice is represented in the policies of 14 Global South countries and how national policy actors perceive these dimensions. Using a three-component theoretical framework and fuzzy ideal type analysis, the research identifies six ideological typologies of energy justice: the balanced state, the procedural and distributive justice-oriented state, the distributive and restorative justice-oriented state, the procedural justice monotype state, the restorative justice monotype state, and the vulnerable state. This mid-range comparative study bridges a critical empirical gap by combining quantitative indicators with qualitative insights from senior energy ministry officials, enhancing the validity and contextual depth of the typologies. The findings contribute foundational knowledge for developing justice-oriented energy strategies, enabling intra-Global South comparison, and informing policy transitions that align with ethical, practical, and context-specific demands of energy governance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"129 ","pages":"Article 104339"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145109425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Housing affordability in the renewable energy transition: Evidence from the domestic rooftop solar panel uptake in Sydney, Australia","authors":"Song Shi,&nbsp;Mustapha Bangura,&nbsp;David Robinson","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104335","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104335","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the factors influencing household solar panel uptake in the Sydney metropolitan area from 2013 to 2024, using a panel dataset and postcode-level solar installation data. Employing fixed effects panel regression, along with Poisson and negative binomial models for installation counts and Tobit and ordinary least squares models for system capacity, we find that market factors—such as solar system costs and electricity prices—significantly affect solar adoption and capacity. In contrast, feed-in tariffs have a negligible impact. A notable contribution of our research is the incorporation of housing and rental affordability into the analysis. We show that housing affordability, measured by the price-to-income and price-to-rent ratios, plays a significant role in influencing solar uptake. However, rental affordability, as measured by the rent-to-income ratio, has minimal effect. This study highlights housing affordability as a key barrier to solar adoption for property owners and underscores the structural barriers renters face in the clean energy transition. We recommend the implementation of a “Use It or Lend It” solar program, where the government could install solar panels on the rooftops of suitable buildings where the property owners opt not to do so themselves, offering a more effective policy alternative to traditional rebates in accelerating the clean energy transition.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"129 ","pages":"Article 104335"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145119861","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mapping household energy vulnerabilities in the United States: New insights from statistical and machine learning analyses","authors":"Raphael Apeaning ,&nbsp;Musah Labaran ,&nbsp;Mohammed Osman","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104342","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104342","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We deploy a two-stage, theory-driven framework to diagnose household energy vulnerability in the United States using the 2020 Residential Energy Consumption Survey. The first step employs a Latent Class Analysis with covariates to extract three capability-based profiles—Secured, Cost-Stressed, and Vulnerable—within a single, coherent likelihood framework. The second step fits a LightGBM model interpreted through SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) to rank the underlying drivers behind each profile. Households earning &lt; $50,000, living in poorly insulated single-family homes, and exposed to high regional energy prices are most likely to fall into the Vulnerable class. The risk intensifies for larger, Black, and female-headed households and for those residing in climates with high heating or cooling degree-day loads. The Cost-Stressed class is driven mainly by large floor area, “other rental” tenure, and moderate incomes ($50,000–$74,999); inadequate insulation and employment insecurity further elevate risk. These findings expose the heterogeneity of U.S. energy hardship and identify distinct leverage points for policy. Embedding such differentiated strategies within federal and state energy-justice initiatives can more equitably reduce household energy burdens and advance capability-based well-being across demographic and regional lines.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"129 ","pages":"Article 104342"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145100219","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Toward theory consolidation: Stratification, organizational, and political-legal effects on greenhouse gas emissions","authors":"Harland Prechel ,&nbsp;Amber Blazek,&nbsp;Ernesto F.L. Amaral","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104330","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104330","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The purpose of this research is to understand the relationship between dimensions of the social structure and greenhouse gas emissions in U.S. fossil fueled electrical power plants. While environmental scholars have made important contributions to understanding society-environmental relations, theoretical growth and therefore the capacity to affect environmental policy is hampered by the lack of integration among different middle range perspectives. To address this issue, we adopt Robert Merton's observation that theoretical advances require the ‘consolidation of groups of special [middle range] theories.’ We develop a conceptual framework and conduct an empirical analysis that includes core dimensions of the component parts of the social structure. Our geographic information systems analysis shows that electrical energy producing plants are disproportionately located near poor and minority communities. While controlling for physical characteristics of plants, our regression analysis shows that poor communities, region of the U.S. where the plant is located, subnational state environmental policies, ownership of the plant by another corporation, plant size, and the interaction between plant size and subnational state environmental policies all affect greenhouse gas emissions. We present graphs with predicted values from our regression model to illustrate the expected gas emissions, based on values of key independent variables, making complex statistical results more interpretable and meaningful.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"128 ","pages":"Article 104330"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145098493","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploring district heating and cooling cultures, a systematic literature review","authors":"Isaura Bonneux ,&nbsp;Herbert Peremans ,&nbsp;Steven Van Passel","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104340","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104340","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>District heating and cooling (DHC) is increasingly recognized as a viable technology to move away from fossil fuels for heating and cooling in dense urban areas. Due to its complexity as a large-scale technical system, research on DHC has predominantly focused on enhancing energy efficiency. This is often the case for energy transition policies aiming at increasing sustainability; they predominantly emphasize technological solutions, often neglecting broader societal and economic contexts. Nonetheless, recent research efforts have showed how social and technological aspects are inseparable. Within the DHC context too, there have been studies looking more closely into the social aspects. However, these efforts are scattered across both the technological and social literature. Therefore, this systematic review advances efforts to integrate social and technological perspectives in DHC research. Building on the Energy Cultures Framework (ECF), this literature review describes DHC cultures and identifies the factors that influence beliefs and actions regarding DHC. Based on the results, we identify the ownership model of the DHC network, aims and expectations, and citizen engagement as the three dominating factors that determine DHC cultures. Further, we add social networks to the ECF and clarify how it is a mediating factor in the ECF and helps to understand and change attitudes and actions regarding DHC. This review provides a more holistic perspective on DHC adoption, by looking beyond solely technological features and emphasizing these social dynamics.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"128 ","pages":"Article 104340"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145098492","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The uncanny underground: Psychological and cultural associations of subterranean technologies for climate mitigation","authors":"Catherine E. Lambert ,&nbsp;Katherine McComas ,&nbsp;Dominic Balog-Way ,&nbsp;Evelina Trutnevyte ,&nbsp;Julia Cousse","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104341","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104341","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Public perceptions of subterranean renewable energy technologies are shaped not only by technical and environmental considerations but also by deep-seated psychological and cultural associations with the underground. We posit the concept of the “uncanny underground” to describe how interpretations of the subsurface blur boundaries between the familiar and the strange, evoking both curiosity and unease. To explore this phenomenon, we analyze free associations people make with the deep underground, using data collected from a cross-national survey on deep geothermal systems with participants from the US (<em>n</em> = 1003) and Switzerland (<em>n</em> = 1028). While approximately half of the associations describe the physical properties of the underground (e.g., heat, depth, geological structures), a substantial portion reflect symbolic and emotional themes often in the form of dualisms, including: life and death, safety and threat, past and future, and the known and unknown. These associations frequently draw from cultural narratives and symbolic meanings such as burial and the underworld, subterranean adventure stories (e.g., Jules Verne's <em>Journey to the Center of the Earth</em>), and disaster imagery (e.g., <em>The Core</em>). Our findings support research showing that public attitudes towards deep geothermal and other subsurface technologies are shaped by not only technical or economic considerations but also unconscious, culturally embedded meanings that a lifetime of experience and learning create. Understanding how these meanings influence people's perceptions of what we call the “uncanny underground” provides valuable insight into how individuals might react to subterranean energy technologies aimed at addressing climate change.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"128 ","pages":"Article 104341"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145098490","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Energy narratives in Europe: Exploring the link between online news and renewable energy production","authors":"Roberto Vestrelli ,&nbsp;Andrea Fronzetti Colladon ,&nbsp;Claudia Fabiani ,&nbsp;Anna Laura Pisello","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104345","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104345","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this study we examine the relationship between news media importance of different energy-related themes (ERTs) and the level of electricity generation from renewable sources in seven high-income European countries. In an era of rapid technological progress and growing environmental awareness, the media plays a crucial role in shaping public opinion and influencing public action. Our analysis measures the semantic importance of key ERTs in European online news by examining over 260,000 articles published over seven years, from 2014 to 2023. To identify the potential causal effect of media attention to ERTs on renewable electricity generation, we adopt an instrumental variable (IV) approach that addresses potential endogeneity in media reporting. Using text mining methods to quantify ERTs media importance in the news, we find that increased media importance of different ERTs is associated with increased renewable electricity production in the subsequent months. This delayed effect suggests the existence of an optimal window in which media influence can effectively drive renewable energy adoption.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"128 ","pages":"Article 104345"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145098476","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Navigating ecological civilisation: Polycentric environmental governance and policy regulatory framework in China","authors":"Cheng Zhou ,&nbsp;Wanhao Zhang ,&nbsp;Clare Richardson-Barlow","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104347","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.erss.2025.104347","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Amidst global environmental and energy crises, China has institutionalized its Ecological Civilisation as a transformative governance paradigm, synergising multiple policy instruments with environmental modernization. This paper utilises Grounded Theory to systematically analyse 56 environmental policies with significant energy governance components encompassing 510,000 words, identifying three primary categories in China's environmental policy pathways: pollution control, carbon reduction, and green expansion. Further analysis using the Institutional Grammar Tool deconstructs the regulatory components of these pathways. The analysis reveals a tripartite regulatory framework: (1) AIC (Attributes, Aim, Conditions) strategic policy statements (41 % of policies), which establish both implementation flexibility and structured policy experimentation, enabling local governments to adapt and innovate while ensuring the central objectives; (2) ADIC (Attributes, Deontic, Aim, Conditions) normative statements (44 %), balancing market autonomy with state direction; and (3) ADICO (Attributes, Deontic, Aim, Conditions, Or Else) rule-based statements (15 %), enforcing stringent compliance in high-stakes sectors such as fossil fuel industries. The findings demonstrate how China's polycentric governance model strategically calibrates regulatory rigidity and flexibility, challenging conventional dichotomies between command-and-control and market-based approaches. The study advances theoretical debates on modern environmentalism and institutional design while providing actionable insights for environmental and energy policymakers navigating the trade-offs between central stringent regulation and local adaptation and flexibility. By elucidating the textual architecture of environmental regulation, particularly in energy-related policies accounting for a significant portion of China's environmental mandates, this research contributes a novel policy science perspective to environmental and energy governance systems, with implications for both hierarchical and decentralized governance systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":"128 ","pages":"Article 104347"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145098494","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}