1. business and industrial
2. energy
3. renewable energy

Abstract Book
Contents
About this document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3
The general programme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4
Track-by-track programme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5
Keynote speech abstracts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9
Parallel track presentation abstracts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10
A.1 Energy and the Built Environment I: Urban Energy Systems . . . . . . . . .
10
A.2 Energy Generation in Society I: Incumbent Energy Sources and Diversification Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13
A.3 Energy Debates I: Narratives and Framing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
16
B.1 Energy Path-Dependency and Path-Making I: Socio-Technological Systems
19
B.2 Energy and the Built Environment II: Energy Innovations in Housing and
Households . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
21
B.3 Energy Generation in Society II: Solar Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
23
B.4 Energy Debates II: Public Discourses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
24
C.1 Energy Path-Dependency and Path-Making III: Path-Shaping and Expectations 27
C.2 Energy Consumption and Innovations I: Practices and Rhythms of Everyday
Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
30
C.3 Nuclear Energy and Nuclear Waste Management I: Expert Practices . . . . .
31
C.4 Transition Policy of Green Growth: Conceptual and Practical Perspectives . .
34
D.1 The Energy Industry, Risk Governance and Trade-Offs . . . . . . . . . . . .
35
D.2 Energy Consumption and Innovations II: Citizens as Energy Users . . . . . .
38
D.3 Nuclear Energy and Nuclear Waste Management II: Risk Communication and
Dialogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
40
2
About this document
The Helsinki Institute of Science and Technology Studies (HIST), the Aalto University School
of Business, and the Finnish Society for Science and Technology Studies organize the 2nd Aalto
Event on Science and Technology Studies at the Aalto University School of Business, in Helsinki,
Finland, on 5-6 November 2012.
The Aalto Event gathers researchers interested in the relation between social issues and science
and technology. The particular theme of this year’s event is energy in society. During the last
decades, national energy systems and energy policies have been challenged in a number of ways
with rampant consequences. Societies are shifting into lean, energy efficient, and low-carbon
economies, while international energy markets have expanded, and new essentially political forms
of representation on energy services and energy consumption have emerged. At the same time,
energy policies and the relevant business practices continue to be shaped by the existing base
of investments and infrastructures. Such path-dependencies and their effects are indeed easily
underestimated by the current hype with future energy scenarios.
With these issues in mind, the event welcomed papers that deal with for example:
• Path-dependency and path-making in energy systems.
• Energy policy and social actors in fields of energy provisioning.
• Expertise, reputation, and other sources of social power related to energy systems.
• Expansion of electricity markets and their regulation.
• Conceptualizations of energy security and risks.
• Energy consumption and energy services in everyday life.
This document contains all the presentation and paper abstracts submitted to the event. The programme includes some 50 abstracts presented in parallel thematic sessions.
3
The general programme
M ONDAY 5 N OVEMBER 2012
10:00-10:15
10:15-11:45
Welcoming words and Introduction: Dean Ingmar Björkman (Aalto University School of
Main Building
Business)
Assembly Hall
Keynote: Professor Simon Marvin (Durham University, UK): “Cities and Low Carbon
-“-
Transition”
11:45-13:15
Keynote: Dr. Tuula Teräväinen (University of Helsinki, Finland): “Debating the Political
-“-
Promises of Energy Technologies”
13:15-14:15
Lunch
14:15-15:45
Parallel Thematic Sessions A
1. Energy and the Built Environment I: Urban Energy Systems
Main, Board Rm.
2. Energy Generation in Society I: Incumbent Energy Sources and Diversification Strategies
Arkadia E124
3. Energy Debates I: Narratives and Framing
Main Bldg C238
15:45-16:15
Coffee
16:15-17:45
Parallel Thematic Sessions B
19:00-22:00
1. Energy Path-Dependency and Path-Making I: Socio-Technological Systems
Main Bldg A201
2. Energy and the Built Environment II: Energy Innovations in Housing and Households
Main, Board Rm.
3. Energy Generation in Society II: Solar Energy
Chydenia G112
4. Energy Debates II: Public Discourses
Main Bldg C238
Get-together dinner at Restaurant Perho
T UESDAY 6 N OVEMBER 2012
10:15-11:45
Keynote: Professor Harald Rohracher (Linköping University, Sweden & Klagenfurt
Main Building
University, Austria): “Governing a Socio-technical Transition Towards Sustainable Energy
Assembly Hall
Systems? Some Conceptual Challenges”
11:45-13:15
Keynote: Research Director Per Mickwitz (Finnish Environment Institute, Finland): “Change
-“-
and Stability in Energy Systems”
13:15-14:15
Lunch
14:15-15:45
Parallel Thematic Sessions C
1. Energy Path-Dependency and Path-Making II: Path-Shaping and Expectations
Main, Board Rm.
2. Energy Consumption and Innovations I: Practices and Rhythms of Everyday Life
Main Bldg C238
3. Nuclear Energy and Nuclear Waste Management I: Expert Practices
Arkadia E127
4. Transition Policy of Green Growth: Conceptual and Practical Perspectives
Main Bldg C350
15:45-16:15
Coffee
16:15-17:45
Parallel Thematic Sessions D
17:45-19:30
1. The Energy Industry, Risk Governance and Trade-Offs
Main, Board Rm.
2. Energy Consumption and Innovations II: Citizens as Energy Users
Main Bldg C238
3. Nuclear Energy and Nuclear Waste Management II: Risk Communication and Dialogue
Arkadia E127
Closing of Event
Main Building
Restaurant Proffa
4
Track-by-track programme
M ONDAY
5 N OVEMBER
2012
14:15 -15:45
A.1 Energy and the Built
Environment I: Urban Energy
Systems
A.2 Energy Generation in Society
I: Incumbent Energy Sources and
Diversification Strategies
A.3 Energy Debates I:
Narratives and Framing
Main Building, Board Room
Moderator: Armi Temmes
Arkadia, Room E124
Moderator: Eeva-Lotta Apajalahti
Main Building, Room C238
Moderator: Suvi Huttunen
1. “Energy Transformations
Through Local Institutional and
Organizational Change”, Pia
Laborgne, Technical University
of Darmstadt, Germany.
1. “Diversification Strategies in the
Renewable Energy Industry:
Success Factors and Timing
Considerations”, Melanie
Oschlies, University of St. Gallen,
Switzerland.
1. “A Metadata Approach to
Ingesting Energy Realities”, Ben
Li, University of Oulu, Finland /
University of Calgary, Canada.
2. “Skaftkärr, an Energy
Efficient Residential Area”, Eero
Löytönen, City of Porvoo,
Finland.
3. “Protection of Electric Traffic
Niche in Finland – Too Much or
Too Little?”, Armi Temmes,
Rami-Samuli Räsänen, Veikka
Pirhonen and Raimo Lovio,
Aalto University, Finland.
2. “Directors’ Status-Quo Bias and
Strategic Renewal: Do Politicians
in the Board of Directors Prevent
Change?”, Rolf Wüstenhagen and
Melanie Oschlies, University of St.
Gallen, Switzerland.
3. “Formation, Maintenance and
Destabilisation of Carbon Lock-in
at Large Municipal Energy
Utility”, Eeva-Lotta Apajalahti and
Raimo Lovio, Aalto University,
Finland.
2. “The Technology Promoting
Narrative on Solar Energy in
Finland”, Heli Nissilä, Tea
Lempiälä and Raimo Lovio,
Aalto University, Finland.
3. “Finnish Forest Bioenergy
Production Facing the
Challenges of Climate Change,
Sustainability and Innovations”,
Suvi Huttunen, Finnish
Environment Institute.
M ONDAY
5 N OVEMBER
2012
16:15 -17:45
B.1 Energy Path-Dependency
and Path-Making I: SocioTechnological Systems
B.2 Energy and the Built
Environment II: Energy
Innovations in Housing and
Households
B.3 Energy Generation in
Society II: Solar Energy
B.4 Energy Debates II: Public
Discourses
Main Building, Room A201
Moderator: Mira Käkönen
Main Building, Board Room
Moderator: Adriana Mica
Chydenia, Room G112
Moderator: Raimo Lovio
Main Building, Room C238
Moderator: Antti Silvast
1. “A Socio-Ecological Systems
Analysis for Understanding
Institutions in Carbon Capture
and Storage”, Arho Toikka,
University of Helsinki, Finland.
1. “Towards Systemic Housing
Retrofit: Developing Local
Cultures of Domestic Energy
Conservation”, Andrew
Karvonen, University of
Manchester, UK.
1. “Solar Heater Self-Building
Courses as Sources of Consumer
Empowerment and Local
Embedding of Sustainable
Energy Technology?”, Mikko
Jalas, Aalto University, Helka
Kuusi and Eva Heiskanen,
National Consumer Research
Centre, Finland.
1. “Changing Public Discourses
on Finnish Nuclear New Builds
around Fukushima Disaster”,
Maarit Laihonen, Aalto
University, Finland.
2. “Transformative Governance
in Energy Infrastructures: A
Challenge for a Sociology of
Energy”, Gerhard Fuchs,
University of Stuttgart /
Helmholtz Alliance
Energy-Trans, Germany.
3. “New Socio-technical Energy
Systems in the Making: The
Will to Improve the Energy Poor
in Laos and Cambodia”, Mira
Käkönen and Hanna Kaisti,
University of Turku, Finland.
2. “Formal and Informal
Diffusion of Innovations:
Thermal Rehabilitation of
Buildings in Romania”, Adriana
Mica, University of Warsaw,
Poland.
2. “Prospects for Solar
Technology: The Role of
Demonstration Projects”, Eva
Heiskanen, National Consumer
Research Centre and Raimo
Lovio, Aalto University,
Finland.
2. “The Contested ‘Truth’ about
Chernobyl”, Karena Kalmbach,
European University Institute,
Italy.
3. “National Security Threat and
Its Measurement: Protecting
Society’s Vital Energy
Infrastructures in Finland”, Antti
Silvast, University of Helsinki,
Finland.
T UESDAY
6 N OVEMBER
2012
14:15 -15:45
C.1 Energy Path-Dependency
and Path-Making II: PathShaping and Expectations
C.2 Energy Consumption and
Innovations I: Practices and
Rhythms of Everyday Life
C.3 Nuclear Energy and Nuclear
Waste Management I: Expert
Practices
C.4 Transition Policy of Green
Growth: Conceptual and
Practical Perspectives
Main Building, Board Room
Moderator: Les Levidow
Main Building, Room C238
Moderator: Mikko Jalas
Arkadia, Room E127
Moderator: Matti Kojo
Main Building, Room C350
Moderator: Nina Wessberg
1. “Path-dependency and
Path-making in the Energy
System in the Spanish Tile
Sector”, Daniel GabaldónEstevan, University of Valencia,
Eliseo Monfort-Gimeno, Ana
Mezquita-Martí and Eva Vaquer
Cañete,Universitat Jaume I.
Castelló, Spain.
1. “User Innovation in
Sustainable Home Energy
Technologies”, Sampsa Hyysalo,
Jouni Juntunen and Stephanie
Freeman, Aalto University,
Finland.
1. “Geological Disposal of
Radioactive Waste as a
‘Megaproject’: A Survey of
Potential Methodologies for
Socio-economic Evaluation”,
Markku Lehtonen, Université
Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée,
France / Sussex Energy Group,
UK.
1. "Innovation System Analysis:
A Framework for Accelerating
Green Growth", Marko Hekkert,
Utrecht University, Netherlands.
2. “Justifying a Project Over
Several Decades: The Example
of the Fast Breeder Reactor in
France”, Arthur Jobert and
Claire Le Renard, Électricité de
France.
3. “Innovation Priorities for UK
Bioenergy: Technological
Expectations versus Path
Dependence”, Les Levidow,
Theo Papaioannou and Alex
Borda-Rodriguez, Open
University, UK.
2. “Stacking Wood and Staying
Warm: The Rhythms of
Domestic Woodbased Heating
Practices”, Mikko Jalas and
Jenny Rinkinen, Aalto
University, Finland.
2. “Adjudicating ‘Deep Time’ in
the United States’ Failed Yucca
Mountain Nuclear Waste
Repository Licensing
Procedure”, Vincent Ialenti,
Cornell University, US.
3. “Negotiations on the Future
of Joint Final Disposal of Spent
Nuclear Fuel in Finland:
Analysis of the Motives,
Resources and Tactics of the
Key Actors”, Matti Kojo,
University of Tampere, Finland.
2. "The Role of Government
Policy in Stimulating Green
Growth: International
Experiences", Matthias Weber,
Austrian Institute of Technology.
3. “Towards Green Growth Can Transition Approaches
Make a Difference?",
Christopher Palmberg, Tekes,
Finland.
4. “Shaping Paths to Renewable
Energy Markets in Finland”,
Nina Wessberg, Johanna Kohl,
Annele Eerola, Torsti
Loikkanen, Mikko Dufva and
Sirkku Kivisaari, VTT,
Technical Research Center of
Finland.
T UESDAY
6 N OVEMBER
2012
16:15 - 17:45
D.1 The Energy Industry, Risk
Governance and Trade-Offs
D.2 Energy Consumption and
Innovations II: Citizens as
Energy Users
D.3 Nuclear Energy and Nuclear
Waste Management II: Risk
Communication and Dialogue
Main Building, Board Room
Moderator: Antti Silvast
Main Building, Room C238
Moderator: Jouni Juntunen
Arkadia, Room E127
Moderator: Sari Yli-Kauhaluoma
1. “Energy Distribution System
Operator in Interaction with
Society: Two Cases”, Bauke
Steenhuisen and Wijnand
Veeneman, Delft University of
Technology, Leen van Doorn
and Harry van Breen, Alliander,
Netherlands.
1. “Rethinking the Experience
of ‘Consensus Conference about
Energy Alternatives’ in Castilla
y Leon, Spain”, Ana Cuevas
Badallo, Tamar Groves,
Jorgelina Sannazzaro, University
of Salamanca, Spain.
1. “Risk Dialogue in a Large-scale
Scientific Enterprise: Analyzing
Copper Corrosion as a
Socio-technical Challenge in
Finnish Nuclear Waste
Management”, Tapio Litmanen,
Tatiana Nigay and Jurgita
Vesalainen, University of
Jyväskylä, Finland.
2. “The Brazilian Electricity
Sector: Dealing with
Dependencies”, Kristina
Kramer, Universidade Federal
de Santa Catarina, Brazil / Freie
Universität Berlin, Germany.
3. “System Management and
System Failure: A Sociological
Analysis of Experts’ and
Laymen’s Insights of Electricity
Infrastructure and its Problems”,
Mikko J. Virtanen and Antti
Silvast, University of Helsinki,
Finland.
2. “Innovation Theory and
Energy Policy: The Rise of
Accelerated Energy Innovation
and Its Implications for
Innovation Theory”, Mark
Winskel, University of
Edinburgh, UK.
3. “Internet Forums and Citizen
Inventiveness in Renewable
Energy”, Sampsa Hyysalo, Jouni
Juntunen and Stephanie
Freeman, Aalto University,
Finland.
2. “Reframing of Nuclear
Communities: Nuclear Industry
Reinterpreting Nuclear
Communities Heightened
Willingness to Consider Final
Repository”, Mika Kari,
University of Jyväskylä, Finland.
3. “In Our Backyard – Strategic
Framing of Nuclear Waste
Repository”, Hannu Hänninen and
Sari Yli-Kauhaluoma, Aalto
University, Finland.
Keynote speech abstracts
M ONDAY 5 N OVEMBER 2012
10:15-11:45
Aalto University School of Business Main Building, Assembly Hall
C ITIES AND L OW C ARBON T RANSITIONS – PRODUCING URBAN ECOLOGICAL SECURITY ?
Professor Simon Marvin (Durham University, UK)
The challenge for large metropolitan areas in the 21st Century is to ensure their continued economic and social development while dealing with the uncertainties raised by global ecological
change. As a result national and local governments are increasingly thinking about strategies for
protecting large cities from climate change, for reducing reliance on external energy, water, food
and waste flows, and developing the knowledge, expertise and governance capacity for effectively
managing the changes required. Using a range of methods, including analysing documents and
interviews with policymakers, politicians, corporates, utilities and environmental groups this talk
explores urban responses to climate change and wider resource constraint. It compares the knowledge and capacity being developed in large world cities with those in ordinary cities. This work
shows how selected large world cities are able to strategically understand the implications of climate change for flooding, weather and other critical resource issues such as energy supply against
the context of their own aspirations for economic growth. Local governments of such cities are
also trying to increase their autonomy by decreasing their reliance on external infrastructure networks. Working through new urban networks, often with environmental groups and corporates,
world cities are aiming to establish themselves as developing ‘exemplary’ urban responses that, it
is claimed, could be transferred and adopted in other contexts. However, the research shows that
cities vary in their ability to respond to these developing challenges. It also raises critical questions
about world cities’ responses which were often too narrowly-based or too over-technical and were
not easily transferable to other situations. It concludes that a wider range of options for solutions
are required and we should not rely on world cities to produce the responses required.
T UESDAY 6 N OVEMBER 2012
10:15-11:45
Aalto University School of Business Main Building, Assembly Hall
G OVERNING A S OCIO - TECHNICAL T RANSITION TOWARDS S USTAINABLE E NERGY S YSTEMS ?
S OME C ONCEPTUAL C HALLENGES
Professor Harald Rohracher (Linköping University, Sweden & Klagenfurt University, Austria)
Innovation and technology policies are increasingly focusing on so-called grand challenges such
as climate change mitigation or energy security. Analysing such challenges from a science and
technology studies point of view draws our attention to a dilemma: On the one hand, concepts and
empirical analyses of socio-technical change teach us how messy such processes are, how they depend on various contingencies and distributed action which in practice is hardly coordinated. On
the other hand, we will have to deal with those transformation processes in one way or another and
try to collectively shape socio-technical change. In my presentation I will look at some concepts
9
of transformational change in science and technology studies (such as transition management) and
sketch out how they are used in analysing the challenge of transforming energy systems towards
greater sustainability. I will particularly focus on a number of conceptual questions which have
not yet been resolved, but which are at the same time essential to get a more differentiated understanding of the potentials and pitfalls of our ambition to shape the transition towards sustainable
energy systems.
Parallel track presentation abstracts
M ONDAY 5 N OVEMBER 2012
14:15 -15:45
Parallel Thematic Sessions A
A.1 Energy and the Built Environment I: Urban Energy Systems
Aalto University School of Business Main Building, Board Room
1. E NERGY T RANSFORMATIONS T HROUGH L OCAL I NSTITUTIONAL
C HANGE
AND
O RGANIZATIONAL
• Pia Laborgne ([email protected]), Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany
The urban socio-technical energy system is a key field for coping with global environmental
changes and sustainable development of cities. Its forms and usages are decisive for resource
consumption, but it also has important impacts on social and economical development. Cities
are major context for the consumption of resources as well as centres for innovation and privileged level for experimentation and implementation. They are thus important starting points for
sustainability transitions.
The paper is based on case studies in three major German urban areas: Berlin, Frankfurt/Main and
the Ruhr Metropolis in the framework of an interdisciplinary researcher group on urban infrastructures. The starting point is that urban energy infrastructure faces major transformations concerning
the technical structures of energy provision and consumption as well as the social organization of
energy provision and governing structures. The core question is how the energy system can be
transformed on the local level, what role cities can have in the process of transforming the energy
system and what specific local approaches for this exist. The research refers to the multi-level
perspective in transition research (Geels 2002).
The paper focuses on organizational approaches, in concrete on institutional socio-technical niche
creation at the local level. Following Konrad et al (2004) such niches are defined as new configurations of structural elements with the focus on the change of institutional structures. Several
examples for such transformations in Berlin, Frankfurt/Main and the Ruhr Metropolis are analyzed and compared based on qualitative interviews with local key actors, as well as on a media
10
analysis, official documents and literature. The goal is to assess the potential of these approaches
as local strategies within a specific context and to ask in how far institutional structures in urban
areas (should) transform in the context of energy transformations.
2. S KAFTKÄRR ,
AN
E NERGY E FFICIENT R ESIDENTIAL A REA
• Eero Löytönen, ([email protected]), City of Porvoo, Finland
Combined skills of energy and urban planning have become vital while fighting the Climate
Change: the urban planner is the first actor in the planning process, the plans of whom will either
restrict or enable optimal RES and EE implementation later on. However, the urban and regional
planners are not educated on these questions and the planning processes do not sufficiently encourage on energy efficient urban planning. Both the UPRES-project and the Skaftkärr-case justified
a need for change.
The traditional planning approach is that a municipality creates a general location plan in which
the buildings can be easily built and connected to reads, and defines the physical dimensions of
the buildings. The building code ensures the new buildings meet the EE norms. Thereafter, the
energy and water utilities connect the buildings to their infrastructure in the best way still possible.
In such away, however, it may be too late to optimize the RES and EE.
In city of Porvoo, Finland a completely new approach was implemented: in the new way, the
energy experts and the urban planners together with other professionals, started working together
in the general plan stage already. The new planning approach for Skafkärr-case covered following
elements:
a) the structure and costs of urban areas
b) energy production and consumption in the area
c) mobility and traffic solutions and their environmental impacts
d) services needed in the area and social elements
e) new energy solutions, codes for construction
The new urban plan that was based on maximizing the share biomass fuelled CHP and DH appeared to be the best choice from environmental point of view, and moreover, with the overall
life-cycle costs much lower than the traditional plan would have caused. In other words, the new
combined energy and urban planning was a win-win approach from both the reduced emission and
the lowest cost point of view that was highly appreciated by the local decision makers.
In the UPRES trainings carried out in five European countries in fall 2011-spring 2012 the above
mentioned planning elements were covered as well. In the trainings the project has been able to
reach hundreds of urban and regional planners and energy experts. In addition to the training, the
project has been able to raise discussion on energy-efficient planning.
The lessons learnt in the Skaftkärr case are perfectly in line with the recommendations from the
trainings:
a) urban and regional planners need to start working together with energy experts
b) energy issues and energy efficiency should be taken into account in all levels of
urban and regional planning
c) competence on urban and regional planning is not enough: multi-faceted expertise
is needed to create sustainable communities
11
Promoting new planning approaches requires not only training but also changes in the regional and
local planning processes. This can be promoted with good practice examples such as Skaftkärrcase. Also consultation and information provision is needed.
The pilot training is a part of Intelligent Energy Europe (EACI) research program that promotes
RES access on the energy market.
3. P ROTECTION OF E LECTRIC T RAFFIC N ICHE IN F INLAND – T OO M UCH OR T OO L ITTLE ?
• Armi Temmes ([email protected]), Aalto University Department of Management and
International Business, Helsinki, Finland
• Rami-Samuli Räsänen ([email protected]), Aalto University Department of
Management and International Business, Helsinki, Finland
• Veikka Pirhonen ([email protected]), Aalto University Department of Management
and International Business, Helsinki, Finland
• Raimo Lovio ([email protected]), Aalto University Department of Management and International Business, Helsinki, Finland
There is a societal demand for innovations that improve the sustainability of the transport sector.
The negative externalities of transport include greenhouse emissions, toxic emissions of vehicles,
land use pressures, congestion and accidents. In spite of these pressures, transport is still a very
stable regime built on roads, private cars and the internal combustion engine. In the area of private
cars one of the developing niche technologies is electric traffic, which can drastically improve the
energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse emissions of road transport.
We study the development of electric traffic in Finland drawing on strategic niche management
(SNM) literature, in which individual niche technology (like electric traffic) is considered to develop through transition experiments. The experiments are first local, then gradually develop into
trajectories (Geels and Raven, 2006) in which generic knowledge is developed through aggregation activities, which are social and cognitive activities that make knowledge flows possible (Geels
and Deuten, 2006).
An essential feature of SNM is formation of protected spaces – niches – for the emerging technologies in order to protect them from the mainstream selection pressures (Kemp et al., 1998,
Smith and Raven, 2012). The various forms of protection have been conceptualized by Smith and
Raven (2012) as shielding, nurturing and empowerment.
Building on Smith and Raven (2012) we ask the following research questions: 1) How do Finnish
innovation policy measures offer protection for the emerging electric traffic niche, and 2) Are there
indications of a successful empowerment of the electric traffic niche in Finland?
There have been a burst of activities in the electric traffic niche in Finland since 2009, but the
penetration of electric vehicles and the development of electric traffic businesses are still at a very
early stage. Based on our analysis of the various activities we propose that local niche activities
and the various shielding measures together enhance the development of broader networks and
aggregation activities. The various actors in these activities enhance the empowerment in different
ways. The open proponents (niche actors) build the electric traffic future but may suffer from
12
lack of credibility among neutral actors, and the “conservatives” (regime actors) are cautious, but
extremely credible. This resembles the differences of Greening Goliaths and emerging Davids
(Hockerts and Wüstenhagen, 2010), but is less dependent on the size of the company.
A.2 Energy Generation in Society I: Incumbent Energy Sources and Diversification Strategies
Aalto University School of Business Arkadia Facility, Room E124
1. D IVERSIFICATION S TRATEGIES IN THE R ENEWABLE E NERGY I NDUSTRY: S UCCESS FAC TORS AND T IMING C ONSIDERATIONS
• Melanie Oschlies ([email protected]), University of St. Gallen, Switzerland
Substantial investment in the renewable energy industry is needed to drive the global energy system transition. However, investment decisions in emerging industries, like the renewable energy
industry, are associated with high uncertainty. This paper assesses stock market reactions to entry decisions of established multi-technology firms into the renewable energy sector. The aim is
to identify which aspects constitute a successful diversification into an emerging industry from a
stock market perspective, i.e. in which cases diversification is rewarded with higher stock market
performance.
An example for different stock market reactions is the wind sector. After the sector was developed
by pure wind players such as Vestas and Enercon, established multitechnology firms entered,
e.g. GE (2002), Siemens (2004), and Alstom (2007). While GE managed to become the third
largest player, Siemens ranks sixth and Alstom (late adopter) did not make it to the top 10 – and
stock market reactions to the announcements of the respective market entries varied substantially.
Therefore, established technology firms do not only have diverse entry options to choose from:
e.g. being a first mover or a follower and acquiring a firm that is already active in the market
or creating a joint venture. They also need to consider shareholder reactions when making the
decision. And so far, research does not provide clear guidance on what are the drivers of positive
or negative investor reactions to renewable energy related diversification decisions. The resulting
questions are: How do diversification strategies into the renewable energy industry impact stock
performance? How does the impact vary with decisions timing (early vs. late adopter), the current
public discourse on renewable energies (e.g. depending on oil price, regulation, climate change
discussions, and energy system related events such as the Fukushima incident), and the economic
environment?
I use an event study approach assessing short-term investor reactions to answer these questions.
Initial results indicate towards a generally negative reaction to diversification decisions (as proposed by literature). In terms of diversification mode, joint ventures achieve positive results,
acquisition negative ones. Furthermore, more established energy technologies like wind achieve
more positive reactions than less established technologies (e.g. solar).
13
2. D IRECTORS ’ S TATUS -Q UO B IAS AND S TRATEGIC R ENEWAL : D O P OLITICIANS
B OARD OF D IRECTORS P REVENT C HANGE ?
IN THE
• Rolf Wüstenhagen ([email protected]), University of St.Gallen, Switzerland
• Melanie Oschlies ([email protected]), University of St.Gallen, Switzerland
When the energy policy decisions changed the Swiss market in 2011 the large electric utility
companies were taken by surprise and reacted quite differently. Some of them rather reluctantly
adapted to the new market conditions. The boards of the different companies played (as required
by Swiss law) an active role in this phase of strategic reorientation. For example, the Chairman of
the board of directors of Alpiq took over the interim-CEO role to oversee and drive the redefinition
of the strategy. At BKW, another Swiss utility firm, the strategic changes following the Fukushima
incident were publically communicated and represented by the Chairman of the board, not the
CEO.
While decisions on strategic renewal, both in turbulent and calm times, are based on the interplay
with the management team, the board members are the decision makers who cannot only initiate
strategic renewal, but also have a unique position to do so. Their role allows – and in many
countries requires – them to review the management team’s strategic plans, support them through
an outside perspective, and sometimes even to drive strategic change. There is a vivid debate in
the strategic management literature about the role of the board of directors for strategic renewal
(see for example, Haunschild, 1993; Davis et al., 1997; Carpenter et al., 2001; Chen et al., 2009;
Shropshire, 2010). Two aspects that have not been assessed by now are the subject of this paper:
first, the prevention of strategic renewal through individual directors’ status-quo bias driven by
his or her demographics and network position, and second, the reinforcement of an individual’s
status-quo bias on the board level.
We therefore assess status-quo biases on both levels in times of environmental turbulence through
a combination of network and regression analyses. Our findings from a sample of a total of 105
board members in the Swiss electric utility sector (at two points in time, 2002 and 2011) indicate
a strong influence of a political profession, intra-industry ties and political orientation. Moreover,
several board level dynamics, such as board size and diversity reinforce or mitigate these effects.
With our theoretical discussion and empirical findings we contribute to the social network and
institutional perspective on strategic renewal and highlight the importance of status-quo biases
that stem from imitation and legitimization behaviors for the prevention of strategic renewal.
14
3. F ORMATION , MAINTENANCE AND DESTABILISATION OF CARBON LOCK - IN AT LARGE MU NICIPAL ENERGY UTILITY
• Eeva-Lotta Apajalahti ([email protected]), Aalto University Department of
Management and International Business, Helsinki, Finland
• Raimo Lovio ([email protected]), Aalto University Department of Management and International Business, Helsinki, Finland
Sociotechnical transition literature stresses the need of system level sustainability transitions in
order to respond the global sustainability challenges. One of the earliest analytical tools in sociotechnical transition research is multi-level perspective where system level transition is alignment of three different analytical levels; diffusion of niche-level innovations, destabilisation of
existing regime-level and slowly changing sociotechnical landscape-level. Multi-level perspective
has been criticized for being overly hierarchical due to separation of three different levels. Therefore, resent transition studies have been focusing on regime-level which is of interest and function
as a scene of action, whereas niche and sociotechnical landscape levels have been left as supportive concepts that feed-in pressures or bring new practices and configurations that challenge the
regime.
The stability of existing regime has been characterized by many lock-ins that are driven by selfreinforcing mechanisms (Arthur 1989) but the studies that stresses how existing lock-ins can be
break or self-reinforcing mechanisms can be reversed are scarce. Turnheim and Geels (2012) bring
promising destabilisation concept to describe the potential decline of existing industrial regimes.
The destabilisation of industrial regime is described as a process where reproductions of core
regime elements are weakening (ibid.). They see the destabilisation as longitudinal process where
both external pressures, especially institutional and economic pressures, and endogenous enactment of regime actors are shaping the regime.
In mature industrial regimes large industrial organisations are in many cases the main actors that
reproduce current persistent practices and maintain different lock-ins through self-reinforcing
mechanisms. In order to understand why current, stable and persistent organizational practices
exist and how potential path-breakouts come about, an in-depth historical case study is needed.
Our empirical case organisation is Finland’s largest municipal energy utility that is responsible
for providing electricity to Nordic electricity exchange (Nord Pool) and heating major part of the
Helsinki municipal region. In this paper we explore how organizational path dependency was
formed during 20th century, what types of self-reinforcing mechanisms formulated contemporary
logic of action and how institutional and economic pressures emerged in 1990-2010 that are slowly
leading to destabilisation in the case organisation.
Our empirical investigation show that the current logic of action; economically profitable, technologically efficient, centralised fossil fuel based large-scale energy production with efficient distribution channels in the City centre has its origins already in the beginning of 20th century. Carbon
lock-in was mainly formed before 1990 regards to coal and maintained during 1990s by introducing natural gas. Institutional pressures started to cumulate during 2000s to which case organisation
responded slowly with different response strategies, incremental improvements in its production
and by purchasing renewable energy shares. Economic pressures are yet mainly future threats
and niche-level innovations challenge either heating solutions or electricity production but not
combined production and therefore still remain in the marginal.
15
A.3 Energy Debates I: Narratives and Framing
Aalto University School of Business Main Building, Room C238
1. A M ETADATA A PPROACH TO I NGESTING E NERGY R EALITIES
• Ben Li ([email protected]), Department of Information Processing Science, University of
Oulu, Finland, and InnoLAB, University of Calgary, Canada
In discussions and comparisons of energy politics, examples from Nordic countries are sometimes invoked as models to follow (e.g., Norway’s Oljefondet) or avoid (e.g., Canada’s oil sands
development). Arguments about “if only country X had adopted country Y’s energy policy or
technology” enable citizens, stakeholders, and other configurations of interests to author speculative desired or dreaded futures, to backcast plans from ideal outcomes, and to claim some agency
over (ungraspable) path dependencies and externalities. In this way, (perhaps diverging) co-social
and cotemporal realities (e.g., Greenpeace contrasts Aboriginal mining consortia contrasts Royal
Dutch Shell) may be simultaneously constructed, experienced, and explained from apparently unambiguous human rules overlaid on complex natural phenomena. And in this way, uncertainty,
impotence, and adverse outcomes may be ascribed away from oneself and perhaps to others, while
fortune, competence, and victories may be claimed as outcomes of one’s own merits.
As each narrative competes with all others before and after it to define a or the reality, it also seeks
to underpin future action by attesting to the credibility of some interest’s hindsight, stewardship, or
foresight. Ambiguity in conversation provides ample room for cognitive flexibility, yet obstructs
clear understanding or recognition of gaps within the conversation or missing interests. Yet, as
interests compete to influence beyond their own borders of reality, few interests desire to disambiguate such conflated past, present, future, local or foreign realities (or at least provide maps
outlining them), or admit competitors for attention. Conflation of realities in energy discussions is
both a scholarly problem in theorizing and understanding dynamics of interests, technologies and
polices; and a practical problem for public policy development and evaluation. Expert stakeholders
focus attention on rules and their authors, frustrated stakeholders strive to define and defend their
relevance and sometimes their marginalization, technologists promise unspecified but abundant
futures, and vast unaware publics must trust but cannot verify that their roles remain sustainable
however realities unfold.
This paper investigates what kinds of metadata are, or would be, required by interests in our energy
future to disambiguate and explicate foundations underpinning diverse realities. It proposes a consistent approach to converse about, navigate and collaborate to construct agreeable shared present
and future realities from co-present and loosely coupled vantages, while providing future publics
better documents about past pathways and dependencies. It draws data from discussions made in
or to publics by, for example, policymakers, industry and citizen stakeholder groups, technologists, and ordinary people via newsmedia and online, etc. In particular, this paper investigates data
showing who wants to know more? under what circumstances? about what aspects? in relation to
which realities? from whom? and under what satisfying conditions?
Answering these questions contributes to the STS conversation an essential access to our now very
rapidly shifting conversations co-construct extra-national energy realities.
16
2. T HE T ECHNOLOGY P ROMOTING NARRATIVE ON S OLAR E NERGY IN F INLAND
• Heli Nissilä ([email protected]), Aalto University Department of Management and International Business, Helsinki, Finland
• Tea Lempiälä ([email protected]), Aalto University Department of Management and
International Business, Helsinki, Finland
• Raimo Lovio ([email protected]), Aalto University Department of Management and International Business, Helsinki, Finland
This paper analyzes the technology promoting narrative on solar energy in Finland. So far, solar
technology is not a success story in Finland. It is in a highly marginal position in the Finnish
energy mix, and no remarkable political measures have been taken to promote the technology.
Finland is among the three EU countries that have not introduced support policies for photovoltaic systems (Dusonchet & Telaretti 2010). There is disagreement about whether and when the
technology will reach grid parity and become cost-competitive with conventional energy sources
and doubt about the potential of solar production in Finland’s geographical position. Yet, solar
technology is a rapidly growing market internationally with significant business opportunities for
technology developing companies. A break-through in solar technology could represent a value
innovation for the Finnish economy and growing opportunities for export. Currently, the technology is promoted by a heterogeneous actor group consisting of a few technology developing companies, solar energy researchers, venture capitalists, the industry association Aurinkoteknillinen
yhdistys and the clean-tech roof program ‘Groove’ led by the technology promoting association
Tekes. The industry association and the ‘Groove’ program are the main forums through which
solar actors come together to discuss the meaning, the opportunities and the challenges facing the
emerging solar sector in Finland.
This paper analyzes the ways through which solar technology is promoted in these forums. The
paper departs from a narrative perspective on human group life and perceives technology narratives
as a way of generating positive expectations about the future and a shared understanding of matters
as they are. In order to create markets and political support for a novel technology, a credible
and coherent story-line needs to be formed. This paper maps the arguments, ideas and themes
present in the solar advocacy group’s story-line in Finland. Special attention is paid to a broader
normative and ideological dimension of the narrative to consider the extent to which the narrative
relates wisely to its surroundings and is effective in mobilizing resources for industry growth.
Theoretically the article contributes to the discussion about the role of narratives in relation to the
emergence of novel socio-technical and industrial realms and the politics of sustainability.
The narrative is thought to co-evolve with respect to 1) Finnish technology and energy policy and
decision-making and the overall political culture, in general, and 2) the growing solar market and
the ‘green growth’ approach towards energy that dominates the international discussion on solar
technology. Furthermore, the paper distinguishes narrative coalitions within the advocacy group
and considers these story-lines with respect to their protagonists and their positions in society.
Narrative strengths and weaknesses are identified and ways to strengthen the story-line considered.
The empirical material consists of media reports dealing with the ‘Groove’ program, promotional
material by the solar technology industry association, seminar presentations held at Groove gettogethers by individual solar technology companies and venture capitalists and observations made
17
at the events per se. This material is complemented by main policy and energy industry documents
to indicate the ‘general standing on energy’ in Finland and to understand the wider societal context
of the narrative.
3. F INNISH F OREST B IOENERGY P RODUCTION FACING
C HANGE , S USTAINABILITY AND I NNOVATIONS
THE
C HALLENGES
OF
C LIMATE
• Suvi Huttunen ([email protected]), Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Helsinki,
Finland
The Finnish forest bioenergy production has mainly evolved closely connected to the industrial
forestry system producing pulp, paper and building materials, with tensions also related to these
competing forms of forest resource utilization. However, in recent years, the tensions have been
growing in terms of climate change, sustainability and innovations and forest bioenergy production is facing important pressures pushing simultaneously for both increasing and restricting the
production. Climate change discussions see forest resources as a carbon sink, but also as an important source of energy that can lower green house gas emissions. Sustainability demands are
concerned with the depletion and impoverishment of forest resources in terms of biodiversity and
provision of ecosystem services, but also on rural development where bioenergy production may
play a central role. In addition, forest resources have the potential to lead into new innovations
with even increasing forms of utilization with economic possibilities challenging the economic
rationale of large scale bioenergy production in Finland.
This study aims at revealing if and how the different perspectives regarding the utilization of
forests are observable in the evolution of bioenergy policies, how they are dealt with in formulating
policy outputs and which perspectives gain prominence regarding different policy outputs. This
gives valuable information regarding the recognition of the different aspects related to the use of
forests and of their actualization at the political level, but also related to power distribution and
policy formation.
To explore issues related to the setting of the problem, views on causal relationships and the development of views on action this study uses framing theory. In particular, using an approach where
framing is composed of four elements: 1) setting the problem, 2) identifying the cause, 3) making
moral claims and 4) proposing appropriate action. The study compares the preparation processes
focusing on two recent bioenergy-related legislation: 1) amendments on the Act on the Financing
of Sustainable Forestry (100/2011) and related new Act on Energy Support for Low-Grade Timber (101/2011), and 2) Act on Production Support for Electricity Produced by Sustainable Energy
Sources (1396/2010). The main focus is on framings identified from stakeholder statements for
the ministries preparing the legislature proposals and for parliamentary committees handling the
legislature proposals before their acceptance. The stakeholder framings are further compared to
the proposed and approved legislation.
18
M ONDAY 5 N OVEMBER 2012
16:15 -17:45
Parallel Thematic Sessions B
B.1 Energy Path-Dependency and Path-Making I: Socio-Technological Systems
Aalto University School of Business Main Building, Room A201
1. A S OCIO -E COLOGICAL S YSTEMS A NALYSIS
C ARBON C APTURE AND S TORAGE
FOR
U NDERSTANDING I NSTITUTIONS
IN
• Arho Toikka ([email protected]), Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki,
Finland
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is seen by many as important or even essential tool in climate change mitigation. Global CCS scenarios by organizations such as the International Energy
Agency and the IPCC as well as national scenarios by e.g. the Global CCS Institute foresee enormous emission reductions in the near future by CCS. At the same time, commercial-scale CCS
projects are being cancelled in various locations, including Finland. The issue with these scenario analyses in energy technology development is that they underestimate the importance of
institutions and the interdependence of economic, technological, political and societal concerns
and events. I propose a dynamic institutional systems framework to integrate the various concerns into a simultaneous analysis and demonstrate the frame with case analyses on the budding
developments of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technologies in Europe.
The framework combines cognitive institutionalism with the Socio-Ecological Systems (SES)
framework. Institutions are the rules of the game in a society shaping human interactions; both
formal rules, such as laws and regulations, but also informal institutions through traditions and
practices. Cognitive science has recently started unfolding the evolution of collective mental models and how they change. Incremental change, institutional inertia and path dependency shape
choices in energy systems. There is no guarantee that the process finds the institutions to support
the technologically most advanced or environmentally most benign energy production systems. I
look at the institutions in the SES subsystems of production systems, technology systems, governance systems and user systems and how they constrain and enable each other.
The paper is based on case studies of recent developments in Europe. In Finland, a retrofit demonstration capture project was cancelled fairly late into the process, with environmental impact assessments completed and positive. A combination of factors including company strategies, national climate plans and technological uncertainties forced the project off track. I interpret these
factors as organizational and shared everyday practices or rules-in-use and deeper constitutional
rules. The Finnish case is compared with other European experiences, mainly in Sweden, Norway
and Germany. The uncertainties in CCS development are responded to in different ways in the
different countries based on the institutional factors available.
19
2. T RANSFORMATIVE G OVERNANCE IN E NERGY I NFRASTRUCTURES : A C HALLENGE FOR A
S OCIOLOGY OF E NERGY
• Gerhard Fuchs ([email protected]), University of Stuttgart/Helmholtz
Alliance ENERGY-TRANS, Germany
The paper discusses the potential role and contribution of a sociology of energy in understanding
transition processes. The main aim of the paper is to discuss to what extent a “new” sociology
of energy can be built on the basis of general thinking in theoretical sociology. To demonstrate
limits and possibilities the “Theory of Strategic Action Fields” (Neil Fligstein) will be used for
an analysis of transformative governance in four technological developments, instrumental for
fighting global climate change.
The energy sector in Germany and elsewhere is tightly regulated and dominated by a few powerful actors. It is also not one of the technologically most innovative sectors. Only a relatively
small proportion of turnover is used by the incumbent actors for the purposes of research and development. A small number of powerful closely linked actors (energy providers, manufacturers
etc.) are advancing innovation activities when they consider that frame conditions and incentives
are stable and calculable. The most important actor for stimulating innovation is still the state
or regulatory authorities on a national level. This has not changed after the liberalization of the
energy sector. The number of regulations and the intensity of regulation, however, have increased
significantly. This process of differentiation in the energy sector has led to the creation of different sub-markets. One common characteristic of these sub-markets is that they are dependent on
regulations or sometimes even tiny bits of regulatory changes. These might allow for the creation
of new sub markets and respective business models, e.g. in the market for reselling energy.
The proposed paper looks at the governance of new technologies in three countries that are being
pushed as (more) climate friendly alternatives: photovoltaics (PV) in Japan and Germany, CCS
(Carbon Capture and Storage) in Norway and Germany. The former is related to the development
of a new climate friendly technology, the latter wants to improve the performance of coal fired
power plants, in order to make them more climate friendly.
The development of the markets and technologies under discussion is embedded in specific (four)
strategic action fields with governance configurations aiming in different ways at promoting innovation. By using the theoretical template of Strategic Action Fields the dynamic side of governance
as well as the “who gets what” aspect is supposed to be strengthened in the analysis. At the centre
are an analysis of the stability and change of power constellations dominating the four fields.
3. N EW S OCIO - TECHNICAL E NERGY S YSTEMS
THE E NERGY P OOR IN L AOS AND C AMBODIA
IN THE
M AKING : T HE W ILL
TO I MPROVE
• Mira Käkönen ([email protected]), Finland Futures Research Centre, University of
Turku, Finland
• Hanna Kaisti ([email protected]), Finland Futures Research Centre, University of Turku,
Finland
This paper aims to shed light on the heterogeneous assemblage of different actors, discourses,
policies and practices that are shaping the energy field in developing countries. The focus is on
20
two countries in the Mekong Region: Laos and Cambodia. The paper discusses especially the
role and influence of development actors that in Laos and Cambodia remain to be significant.
Particularly Laos has become a stage and testing ground for both the World Bank and the Asian
Development Bank to develop new sustainable models for energy production with experiments of
new rules and techniques for investments. Also Nordic actors have been funding energy planning
and assessment activities as well as programmes and projects on renewable energy in Laos and
Cambodia (e.g. Finland funded Energy and Environment Programme). The paper examines and
compares these different energy initiatives and their challenges in moving forward from separate
one-off donor-funded demonstration projects with a short lifespan to more coherent approaches
through which small-scale distributed electricity generation could form a more significant part
of the energy production. It also discusses what kind of configurations of technology and social
organisation are involved in different projects and who and how people are included or excluded
in the building of “socio-technical” pathways of more sustainable energy production. As noted by
scholars such as James Ferguson and Tania Li, development projects are often built on expectations
that social change may be brought through de-politicised and programmatic approaches. The
paper discusses the limitations of these kinds of assumptions in the context of energy production
and distribution. The paper is based on fieldwork in Laos and Cambodia that was carried out in
2010 and 2012. The research material includes policy and project documents, expert interviews
and village-level fieldwork.
B.2 Energy and the Built Environment II: Energy Innovations in Housing and Households
Aalto University School of Business Main Building, Board Room
1. T OWARDS S YSTEMIC H OUSING R ETROFIT: D EVELOPING L OCAL C ULTURES
TIC E NERGY C ONSERVATION
OF
D OMES -
• Andrew Karvonen ([email protected]), University of Manchester, UK
The UK’s housing stock is a significant contributor to the national carbon footprint and domestic
upgrade activities to improve the energy performance will play an important role in realising the
2050 national carbon reduction targets. Unlike the new build housing industry that is influenced
by a defined set of national regulations and standards, retrofit activities tend to be driven by a
wide range of actors (notably homeowners and occupants) who realise higher energy performance
through the modernisation of their houses to improve aesthetics, realise higher levels of comfort,
and/or lower utility bills. The balkanised character of retrofit activities results in slow rates of
energy performance improvements in the existing housing stock.
To counter the fragmented and individual nature of domestic retrofit activities, an increasing number of local governments, social housing authorities, charity organisations, and private homebuilders are creating collaborative programmes of local and regional retrofit. Rather than focus on
providing technical information and training or offering rebates or incentives to homeowners, programmes such as Refit West and Warm Zones target the housing stock at a particular scale (block,
neighbourhood, district, city) and then serve as a platform for local designers, builders, and homeowners to develop a community of learning and action. These programmes recognise that energy
21
efficiency upgrades need to be customised to the particular needs and desires of individual houses
while also producing a shared knowledge base of tools and strategies that can be applied to other
houses in the area, resulting in a systemic and joined-up strategy of domestic retrofit at local and
regional scales.
In this paper, I use social practices theory to interpret these emerging programmes of domestic
retrofit. I define retrofit as a bundle of design, construction, and habitation practices involving
particular sociotechnical networks that reorder the relations between buildings, energy, and people.
The aforementioned retrofit programmes are unique because they provide a venue for experts
and non-experts to negotiate issues of energy performance, economics, extent and duration of
intervention, and long-term operation and maintenance in the context of familiar housing stocks.
This highlights the scalar, temporal, and organisational aspects of domestic energy use, and has
the potential to produce ‘cultures of domestic energy conservation’ that can complement topdown regulatory and bottom-up behavioural changes. The emergence of local retrofit programmes
suggests that low carbon housing stocks will be realised through the creation and propagation of
‘communities of interest’ that can reshape the everyday activities of domestic energy consumption.
2. F ORMAL AND I NFORMAL D IFFUSION
B UILDINGS IN ROMANIA
OF I NNOVATIONS :
T HERMAL R EHABILITATION
OF
• Adriana Mica ([email protected]), University of Warsaw, Poland
This article discusses phenomena of formal and informal diffusion of technical innovations in local
contexts. The former type pertains to cases when the diffusion of innovations follows processes
of planning, public policy and specific methodological norms. The latter depicts instances that
occur in the context of negative or inconsistent public policy framework, or of lack of social
and institutional conditions for implementing the directives of existing public policy agenda and
formal regulations regarding the implementation of innovations.
The theoretical perspective builds on theories of diffusion as translation/transformation/construction
commonly associated with actor-network theory (Bruno Latour, Michel Callon, Madeleine Akrich)
and the culturalist strand in Scandinavian institutionalism dealing with translation of ideas in new
organizational contexts (Barbara Czarniawska, Guje Sevón, Kerstin Sahlin). Still, these are all
works where the concept of informal innovation or informal diffusion of ideas has not been properly conceptualized – if at all. In order to fill this gap, the paper looks for inspiration in sociological studies of informal economy (the school associated with Alejandro Portes, the Dutch research
on ethnic entrepreneurship), and of (informal) adjustments in organizations to formal regulatory
schemes and pressures. The novelty of the approach is the incorporation of the research of informal practices in sociology of diffusion. This is a topic that has been sporadically taken up in
studies of diffusion of practices in agricultural systems, or has been studied only in relation to the
aspect of informal networks and their advancing or hampering of innovativeness.
Regarding the empirical part, the paper addresses formal and informal diffusion of energy-saving
innovations – more explicitly, thermal rehabilitation of buildings. The notion of informal diffusion
of thermal rehabilitation of buildings is a generic term covering phenomena such as unauthorized
thermal insulation of the external walls, roofs and terraces of a housing project building, as well
as restoration works of its envelope and facade. The social settings under review comprises of
large cities of Romania (Transylvania – Cluj-Napoca, Satu Mare). At first blush, the flourishing
22
of informal diffusion – as individual entrepreneurship embedded in social relations – seems to be
mainly linked with difficulties in gaining access to financial incentives or with negative social conditions to obtain credit opportunities to implement environmental innovations by associations of
co-owners of buildings. Thus the question emerges regarding the relation between the formal and
informal diffusion, and the role of self-regulatory mechanisms and “liminal forms of diffusion”
within these processes.
B.3 Energy Generation in Society II: Solar Energy
Aalto University School of Business Chydenia Facility, Room G112
1. S OLAR H EATER S ELF -B UILDING C OURSES AS S OURCES OF C ONSUMER E MPOWERMENT
AND L OCAL E MBEDDING OF S USTAINABLE E NERGY T ECHNOLOGY ?
• Mikko Jalas ([email protected]), Aalto University Department of Management and International Business, Helsinki, Finland
• Helka Kuusi ([email protected]), National Consumer Research Centre, Helsinki, Finland
• Eva Heiskanen ([email protected]), National Consumer Research Centre, Helsinki,
Finland
Energy provision has been historically based on centralized systems, in which energy users have
limited involvement. The current interest in micro-generation is challenging this situation. However, the adoption of new technologies and roles in diverse local contexts requires significant adaptation and transformation of both technologies and contexts. We explore self-building courses as
sites of such transformation.
Our paper focuses on solar heater self-building courses. Self-building courses have been identified
as a stimulus for user innovations and local embedding of the technology in Austria (Ornetzeder
and Rohracher 2006). There is also literature suggesting that energy DIY activities can empower
consumers and help them take a more active role in energy systems (Darby 2006). However,
there is limited research on self-build courses outside the Austrian context. Hence, our research
is explorative and aims to uncover (a) participants’ interests, experiences and changes in practices
following such courses, (b) potential impacts of self-building courses on local interest and uptake
of solar technologies and (c) evolution and innovation in course activities and technologies.
Our empirical material builds on participant observation and interviews with Finnish solar heater
course providers and instructors, as well as providers and instructors of other related courses. We
chart the geographical and temporal development of course activity. We also investigate the extent
to which solar self-build courses interact with other similar user-driven activities (e.g. local energy
events), the extent to which they offer more general energy education and empowerment, and the
extent to which they have stimulated the uptake of solar technologies in or near course locations.
A second set of data focuses on the participants’ perspective, which is accessed via a survey to
course participants and complementary interviews. This set of data examines the impacts of selfbuild courses on household practices and overall level of personal and political participation in
energy issues.
23
Our initial hypothesis is that material DIY activities can have political impacts beyond the immediate scope of the course (i.e., participation in the building of a solar heater). Hence, we are
interested in changes in other household practices on the household level, changes in overall participation in energy issues by course participants, and changes in overall relations to technology
as such and energy technologies in particular. On the community level, we anticipate changes in
overall engagement with renewable energy and a potential increase in the adoption of such visible
technologies as solar water heaters. It is also possible that collaborative self-build courses give rise
to innovations in either the focus technology or other related technologies. Based on our findings,
we suggest avenues for further and more specified research and experimentation.
2. P ROSPECTS FOR S OLAR T ECHNOLOGY: T HE ROLE OF D EMONSTRATION P ROJECTS
• Eva Heiskanen ([email protected]), National Consumer Research Centre, Helsinki,
Finland
• Raimo Lovio ([email protected]), Aalto University Department of Management and International Business, Helsinki, Finland
Demonstration projects can serve several roles in generating attractive prospects for innovation.
At the first stage, “path finder” demonstrations (Femenias 2004) can serve as a testing ground to
evaluate a technology for a particular application. The history of technology has also shown the
importance of high-profile demonstrations directed at the general public. Showy demonstrations,
like those deployed by Edison to promote electrical lighting, have been termed “technological
dramas”, which serve to shake stakeholders out of their conventional logic and envision the future
potential of the new technologys (Lampel 2001). At the second stage, demonstration projects can
serve as “field trials” to improve performance and reduce costs (Hendry et al. 2010), as well as
to create credibility for and networks around the new solutions (Geels and Kemp 2012). At the
third stage, “way winner” demonstrations (Femenieas 2004) function as a way to bring innovative
solutions into the mainstream and thus reinforce the new path.
However, there is evidence that demonstration projects often fail in generating positive expectations or remain isolated (van Hal 2000). Our paper examines various types of demonstration
projects organized in Finland during the latest decades in the area of solar technology in housing. We analyze high-profile projects that have aimed to shape public opinion. We also look at
more low- key projects organized by industry players and aiming to work as field trials and mainstreaming solar energy constructions. By analyzing the successes and failures of these projects in
generating attractive prospects, we identify implications for STS literature and practitioners.
B.4 Energy Debates II: Public Discourses
Aalto University School of Business Main Building, Room C238
1. C HANGING P UBLIC D ISCOURSES ON F INNISH N UCLEAR N EW B UILDS AROUND F UKUSHIMA
D ISASTER
• Maarit Laihonen ([email protected]), Department of Management and International
Business, Aalto University School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland
24
This paper studies Finnish nuclear power discussion around the parliament’s decision (Decisionin-Principle, DiP) of new nuclear power plants in summer 2010 and in spring 2011 when Fukushima
nuclear plant disaster raised Finnish nuclear new builds again to public debate. The focus is on
argumentation used by different media in the very often adversarial debate on need for and the
role of nuclear energy. The argumentation took slightly new direction as Fukushima disaster legitimized value based debate on the topic. The change demonstrates the difficulty of societal debate
where the role of business activity is raised from economic role to societally responsible activity.
Public nuclear power discussion is not only environmental but also a debate on energy, safety and
labour politics. Media acts as an arena for the debate and discussion of political issues. However,
the arena is not similarly open to all actors of society but media can choose which issues and
opinions it brings up. The arena is thus ideologically shaped and contributes to reproducing social
relations of dominance and exploitation. The ideology is not explicitly in sight but implicitly in
ways of using language: presuppositions, taken-for-granted assumptions or the overall naturalization and commonsensical use of language. Public policy again not only shapes but also depends
partly on public opinion which again is shaped by the media representations of the questions to
be solved. Despite the highly science-based nature of nuclear energy debate, it raises traditionally
heated and emotional discussions when it comes current in policy making.
During the last decades public communication related to issues where scientific facts are important
has shifted towards more democratic engagement of public and different views. However, this
dialogue is not perfect: Only measuring opinions can hardly be called a fully democratic process
or as a search for a consensus for example in nuclear power decisions. But the problem is not only
in science itself but in the fact that creating common base of knowledge in societies is extremely
difficult. Thus, media is in the intersection and an interpreter of ‘hard’ scientific knowledge and
‘soft’ values.
The decision of new nuclear plants is meaningful even in global sense as positive nuclear power
plant decisions are today relatively rare in Western world and thus might affect to other countries’
decisions in their energy policies. In public debate the original process got a lot of attention and
e.g. environmental organizations organized large critical campaigns. Critical discourse analysis is
built on three different active media sources and two company websites. The argumentation for
and against nuclear power were originally concentrated on two main issues: economic advantages
and the cleanliness of nuclear power. Interesting in the argumentation was that different sides did
not seem to discuss with each other but mainly to decision makers and public. During Fukushima
disaster, the different media discourses changed. The analysis illustrates the complexity of building a coherent public understanding and specialty of the Finnish nuclear energy debate – a topic
where corporate and society responsibilities blur.
2. T HE C ONTESTED ‘T RUTH ’
ABOUT
C HERNOBYL
• Karena Kalmbach ([email protected]), Department of History and Civilization,
European University Institute, Firenze, Italy
I would like to present my work in progress on a comparative history of the French, Italian and
British Chernobyl discourses, undertaken in the framework of my PhD at the European University
Institute. By now, I have accomplished my case studies on France and Britain. In my paper, I
would like to discuss conclusions drawn from my comparative work on France and Britain and
perspectives for the approaching of the Italian case.
25
My research deals with the question of how national nuclear politics have influenced the debate
on the health effects of the accident in the respective countries (and vice versa) and how the
commemoration of the accident has been used to underpin political arguments. At the same time,
the comparative perspective applied sheds light on the importance of underlying structures such
as risk perception, elite culture, and environmentalism as well as on the role of individual agency.
These factors condition the emergence of a specific narrative of the accident within a specific
discursive field and, furthermore, determine the meaning which is attributed to ’Chernobyl’. I pay
special attention to the anniversaries of the accident in 1996 and 2006 because of the political
implications that are tied to the commemoration of ’Chernobyl’. The case of ’Chernobyl’ makes
a particularly challenging research topic as the question ‘What was (or is) Chernobyl?’ directly
impacts current questions regarding (nuclear) energy and environmental policies.
3. NATIONAL S ECURITY T HREAT AND I TS M EASUREMENT: P ROTECTING S OCIETY ’ S V ITAL
E NERGY I NFRASTRUCTURES IN F INLAND
• Antti Silvast ([email protected]), Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki,
Finland
Recently, the protection of societal ‘critical’ infrastructures has become a topical security issue
in many advanced industrial governments, developing states, and the EU. The manners in which
experts generate responses to infrastructure risk has also been studied by US anthropologists as a
crucial contemporary security problem. The paper applies the theory by these studies on another
region by asking: how does Finnish national security discourse enact threats to electricity supply? The material of the study comprises organizational histories, notes from security seminars,
and expert interviews. The methodology centers in the kind of risk governance that is manifested
in these materials. I pay particular attention to the ways in which the risk governance of Finnish
national energy provisions has been problematized at different times, often motivated by the experiences of pivotal national disasters such as wars, shortages, and energy crises. In this context,
a key tension in Finnish debates on national security stems from the energy crises and worries
over technological dependency in the 1970s. In what followed, national security discourse posed
a powerful new aim: not only the storing of national raw resources, but also the securing of uninterrupted provision of energy, food, communication, and other ‘infrastuctural’ systems. These two
national security objectives employ different although related styles of reasoning, threat scenarios, vocabularies, and techniques of risk government. The paper argues that the tension between
the two objectives is still prominent in the more recent Finnish debates about infrastructures and
security, emergency preparedness, and civil and military contingencies. Furthermore, the tension
also poses a useful analogue for discussing other organizational fields and their risks, such as the
topical contingencies of banking systems.
Keywords: critical infrastructures, risk modeling, expertise, technological disasters
26
T UESDAY 6 N OVEMBER 2012
14:15 -15:45
Parallel Thematic Sessions C
C.1 Energy Path-Dependency and Path-Making III: Path-Shaping and Expectations
Aalto University School of Business Main Building, Board Room
1. PATH - DEPENDENCY
S ECTOR
AND
PATH - MAKING
IN THE
E NERGY S YSTEM
IN THE
S PANISH T ILE
• Daniel Gabaldón-Estevan ([email protected]), Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Valencia, Spain
• Eliseo Monfort-Gimeno, Instituto de Tecnología Cerámica, Universitat Jaume I. Castelló,
Spain
• Ana Mezquita-Martí, Instituto de Tecnología Cerámica, Universitat Jaume I. Castelló,
Spain
• Eva Vaquer Cañete, Instituto de Tecnología Cerámica, Universitat Jaume I. Castelló, Spain
This paper analyzes how the evolution of the energy system in the Spanish Tile Industry evolved
over XX century and explores the possibilities it faces for the XXI century. Tile industry consumes
considerable amounts of energy along its value chain. Starting from mining activities, the transport
of those materials to the processing plants, the processing of those materials to make them ready
for the tile production, the tile production itself and the storage and the delivery of those tiles once
packed.
Last century tile industry made three radical transitions from traditional biomass to hydrocarbon
resources, first to fuel and then to natural gas. And although fuel and electricity are also consumed
in the sector, nowadays the main energy consumed is natural gas. Gas feeds the most energy
consuming activities within the production activities, this is to say, the atomisers and the kilns of
the tile producers and of the frits, glaze and colours producers.
Electricity is also consumed in other activities such as in the plant transportation (conveyor belts,
robots, etc.) and by the presses, even when altogether the sector, thanks to cogeneration, produces
a considerable amount of the electricity it consumes. Atomisers have installed cogeneration which
has increased total efficiency to 85-90% and makes further reductions in of carbon dioxide (CO2 )
and nitrogen dioxide (NO2 ) emissions difficult. Due to new regional and European legislation,
however, more efforts are being made to improve energy and environmental related processes.
Especially from atomiser firms, whose efforts have been directed to improving the efficiency of
energy consumption and cogeneration. This is due given the huge amounts of energy required in
the process of atomisation where gas accounts for about 1/3 of the total production costs.
Although measurements to assess efficiency in real plants are difficult to obtain according to representatives of the industry an optimal efficiency, with the technologies available, has been achieved.
27
Further developments are not envisaged even though work is being done on improving the burners
in kilns and improvements on preheating to further reduce energy consumption. However, the environmental impacts, the environmental regulations and the emerging new sources of agricultural
biomass open the possibility for path-making in the energy system in the Spanish Tile Sector.
Next to the energy and environmental aspects, the study also considers the characteristic of its
innovation system.
2. J USTIFYING A P ROJECT OVER S EVERAL D ECADES : T HE E XAMPLE OF THE FAST B REEDER
R EACTOR IN F RANCE
• Arthur Jobert ([email protected]), Groupe de Recherche Energie Technologie Société,
Électricité de France R&D, Clamart, France
• Claire Le Renard ([email protected]), Groupe de Recherche Energie Technologie Société, Électricité de France R&D, Clamart, France
Investment decisions in the field of energy production create paths for the future and require longterm commitment from the companies concerned. This communication aims to illustrate a case
where a technological innovation project which took place over several decades was called into
question when the changing context no longer matched the rationale behind the project. How did
the stakeholders of such a project react and how did they attempt to pursue their strategy? The
case in question concerns development of the nuclear fast breeder reactor (FBR) in France. The
research covers a period running from the sector’s first steps in the 1960s through to shut-down of
the Superphénix plant in 1997. It is based on the study of numerous bibliographical sources and
on more than 30 interviews.
In its early stages, the FBR was put forward as the promise of a virtually inexhaustible source of
energy. Unlike the pressurised water reactor (PWR), by regenerating its fuel the FBR would, over
the long term, resolve the issue of energy supply.
This “promise” structured the choices and decisions made by the promoters of the breeder programmes. During the 1950s and 1960s several nuclear countries (including France) developed
research facilities, followed by ever-bigger demonstration reactors. In a context of high enthusiasm and consequent budgetary allocation, the challenge was to prove that technical operation of
the sector was feasible.
Development of this technology was then marked by several different phases. In these moments
“of trial”, evolutions in the economic and social contexts led stakeholders to revisit the objectives
of and justification for the Superphénix project.
At the beginning of the 1970s, the first step towards commercialisation was taken, with plans for
the Superphénix “industrial prototype” project;
Controversies emerged in the mid-1970s, within the context of economic crisis and a massive PWR
nuclear programme in France. Some people challenged the very principle behind the breeder programme; others criticised the technical choices which had been made for the Superphénix “industrial prototype”. Nevertheless, although the breeder programme was postponed, the Superphénix
plant was built in order to continue with the industrial demonstration. The engineers in charge of
the project took part in the debates;
28
In the 1990s, commercial perspectives faded away, and continuation of the ever-controversial
Superphénix was assessed on several occasions with regard to its technological viability, safety and
economy. The project stakeholders then attempted to redefine the plant’s missions, particularly
with regard to research and development. The lock-ins introduced by the notion of “industrial
prototype” made reorientation difficult to justify.
To conclude, we will examine possible re-readings of path-dependency phenomena in major technological energy projects: is it simply a question of observing a technological lock-in? On the
contrary, we will argue for the utility of examining the moments of ordeal during which project
stakeholders can renegotiate their initial promises and the outlines of their project.
3. I NNOVATION P RIORITIES FOR UK B IOENERGY: T ECHNOLOGICAL E XPECTATIONS VERSUS
PATH D EPENDENCE
• Les Levidow ([email protected]), Open University, UK
• Theo Papaioannou, Open University, UK
• Alex Borda-Rodriguez ([email protected]), Open University, UK
UK government policy has been promoting bioenergy within a broader transition to renewable
energy for a low-carbon economy. Technoscientific innovation is seen as essential for bioenergy
to provide cost-effective means to reduce GHG emissions, i.e. for bioenergy to become environmentally and economically more sustainable. The UK has an EU commitment to achieve 15%
renewable energy by 2020 and more ambitious targets for 2050. Through targets and subsidies,
UK policy promotes biomass conversion to bioenergy.
But the bioenergy policy framework has become contentious. In 2008 the government promoted
a 5% target for biofuels by 2010, partly as an incentive for industry to develop second-generation
biofuels. In response, Parliamentary committees questioned whether the target would truly reduce
GHG emissions, given doubts about environmentally sustainable biomass; they also warned that
biofuel expansion could lock out more sustainable alternatives. The government greatly subsidises
bioenergy R&D and deployment, partly to incentivise technological innovation which could convert non-food biomass more efficiently. These policies both assume and stimulate greater biomass
imports – which NGO campaigns oppose as environmentally unsustainable: more efficient conversion techniques would not create new land, they warn.
Such controversy illustrates a more general dilemma of policy aims dependent on future technology. As theorised by the sociology of (technological) expectations, technoscientific development
always depends on optimistic promises, as a basis to mobilise investment and to gain favourable
policies. Future benefits are attributed to specific technologies, rather than to the wider context,
which thereby can be blamed for blocking progress. Expectations offer real-time representations
of a desirable future, thus potentially creating the conditions for its realisation. In particular, state
bodies promote specific R&D priorities as more promising pathways, partly as a means to make a
wider technoscientific area seem more credible. However, such commitments can reinforce path
dependencies, which may turn out retrospectively to disappoint the original expectations.
Addressing such dilemmas, bioenergy policy has qualified optimistic expectations with possible
risks. In the UK Bioenergy Strategy, ‘risk’ is given at least two meanings. First, some bioenergy
29
pathways may not be truly renewable, low carbon, environmentally sustainable, cost-effective for
GHG reductions, etc. Second, a specific pathway may irreversibly lock out future alternatives
which would be more beneficial. From that dual meaning, the strategy attempts to identify ‘lowrisk’ innovation pathways.
By elaborating on the sociology of expectations, this paper will discuss two questions:
• How does UK policy identify ‘low-risk pathways’ for bioenergy innovation?
• How does the policy promote specific pathways through favourable conditions, while also
avoiding path dependency and lock-out?
Towards an answer: UK bioenergy strategy has been managing difficult tensions between optimistic expectations and potential risks. The strategy also seeks to manage reputational risks for
state bodies – which need industry investment to expand bioenergy production, but in ways which
leave open future options. This tension is aggravated by the UK state’s relatively low capacity to
influence bioenergy innovation, especially after two decades of liberalising the energy sector.
C.2 Energy Consumption and Innovations I: Practices and Rhythms of Everyday Life
Aalto University School of Business Main Building, Room C238
1. U SER I NNOVATION IN S USTAINABLE H OME E NERGY T ECHNOLOGIES
• Sampsa Hyysalo ([email protected]), Aalto University School of Economics, Helsinki,
Finland
• Jouni Juntunen ([email protected]), Aalto University School of Economics, Helsinki,
Finland
• Stephanie Freeman ([email protected]), Aalto University School of Economics,
Helsinki, Finland
The new millennium has marked an increasing interest in citizens as energy end-users. While
much hope has been laid on more active energy users, it has remained less clear what citizens can
and are willing to do. Our charting of user inventions in heat pump and wood pellet burning systems in Finland in years 2005-2012, revealed next to 200 user inventions. Further analysis clarifies
what, where and how significantly users are able to invent in renewable energy technologies in residential homes. We show that they have been able to successfully modify, improve and redesign
next to all subsystems in. Some of their designs have been commercialized whilst others spread
through copying in peer networks. Expert evaluations of the user inventions confirmed the high
inventiveness and potential in the top end of designs and that 192 projects were inventive even after roughly 50 candidate projects were discarded. These findings shed new light as to how willing
and competent actors citizen end-users can be in developing and anticipating future demand for
distributed renewable energy technologies.
Keywords: renewable energy, end-user, innovation, heat pump, wood pellets
30
2. S TACKING W OOD
H EATING P RACTICES
AND
S TAYING WARM : T HE R HYTHMS
OF
D OMESTIC W OODBASED
• Mikko Jalas ([email protected]), Aalto University Department of Management and International Business, Helsinki, Finland
• Jenny Rinkinen ([email protected]), Aalto University Department of Management
and International Business, Helsinki, Finland
The maintenance of comfortable indoor temperature depends on technological systems and human
labour in various configurations. In Finland, wood-based heating remains common in detached
houses and stands for one option to further lower the carbon emissions of the housing stock.
However, broader use of wood is compromised by concerns over time demands and convenience.
In this paper we present a study of the socio-technical arrangements of using chopped wood as a
source of heat in detached houses. The study is based on large, pre-existing Finnish diary material
in which respondents have described the course of two winter days, in February 1999 and another
in February 2009.
Analytically we draw on the work of Fine (1990) and pay particular attention to the sequences and
rhythms that organise the heating activity. The sequences consist of the flow of interconnected
activities in various locations related to wood-based heating and the rhythms range from the twoyear cycles of acquiring and drying wood to the frequent daily refuelling of fireplaces and boilers
during cold winter days. These rhythms mesh with paid work, child rearing, socializing and longer
periods of absence. Having established such forced rhythmicity of everyday life, we focus on the
conditions under which these systems nevertheless appear as reasonable and apt. We argue that
these heating arrangements depend on mixed sources and various stocks of wood, buffers and
ways to store heat, multiple heat sources but significantly also on the social network of involved
humans and on the flexibility of comfort expectations. More broadly, we suggest that domestic
heating technologies become useable and useful through gradual embedding that involves the
temporal organization of everyday life. Technologies that organise time are not only convenient in
an invisible way but rather also act as taken-for-granted coordinates of human pursuits in everyday
life.
C.3 Nuclear Energy and Nuclear Waste Management I: Expert Practices
Aalto University School of Business Arkadia Facility, Room E127
1. G EOLOGICAL D ISPOSAL OF R ADIOACTIVE WASTE AS A “M EGAPROJECT ”: A S URVEY OF
P OTENTIAL M ETHODOLOGIES FOR S OCIO - ECONOMIC E VALUATION
• Markku Lehtonen ([email protected]), Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée, France,
and Sussex Energy Group, SPRU, University of Sussex, UK
Long-term geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste has not yet been implemented anywhere in the world. However, a number of countries have advanced plans for such disposal. As
31
part of efforts to introduce greater reflexivity into its operations The French national radioactive
waste management agency, Andra is seeking advice on methods and approaches for the “socioeconomic” evaluation of its disposal project. This paper presents the results of the first part of
a research project aimed at designing a framework for socio-economic evaluation of radioactive
waste disposal in France.
Long-term geological disposal of radioactive waste is an extreme example of a “megaproject”
(e.g. Flyvbjerg 2007) characterised by the multiplicity of temporal and spatial scales involved;
continuous evolution and dynamism owing to the uniqueness of the project; the complexity of
the causal relationships; high degree of scientific, political and institutional uncertainties; and a
great likelihood of normative disagreements among parties involved (e.g. Altshuler & Luberoff
2003 ; Flyvbjerg et al. 2003; Priemus & Flyvbjerg 2007). Furthermore, because of the extremely
long time scales involved the governance structures and the institutional framework are certain to
undergo fundamental changes during the lifetime of the disposal project.
Uncertainties involved in megaprojects are usually perceived as problematic, insofar as they tend
to accentuate the risk of chronic overestimation of the benefits and underestimation of the costs and
timescales for the realisation of the project (par ex. Flyvbjerg 2007, 12-13). These uncertainties
are particularly relevant from the perspective of accountability, whereas the “positive uncertainties” have received less attention. Such uncertainties might enable iterative reorientation of the
project in line with changing context (e.g. changes in the role of nuclear industry and citizen attitudes), technological progress, and expectations of the parties involved, thereby fostering social
learning, reflexivity, reversibility, and revision of dominant modes of thinking and earlier decisions, in the spirit of “adaptive governance”. A challenge for the evaluation of the disposal project
is to combine the objectives of accountability and social learning (see e.g. Lehtonen 2005).
This paper presents first part of the research project, based on literature survey and stakeholder
interviews in France, which sought to: 1) identify the characteristics relevant to socio-economic
evaluation and specific to the French disposal project as an example of a “megaproject”; 2) identify
the key actors affected by the project, and conduct a preliminary analysis of their “repertoires” (van
der Meer 1999), so as to 3) outline the key methodological challenges for socio-economic evaluation of the project. Particular attention is given to the following aspects of the method/approach:
its applicability to the evaluation of megaprojects; adherence to the principle of “plural and conditional expertise” (e.g. Stirling 2010; Söderbaum 2001); multidisciplinarity and integration of types
of knowledge; and social learning. Key challenges concern the meaning of “the socio-economic”;
the temporal dimension (ex ante, ex nunc, and ex post evaluation); the purpose of evaluation; the
use and influence of evaluation; and the role of the evaluation process as a source of learning.
2. A DJUDICATING “D EEP T IME ” IN THE U NITED S TATES ’ FAILED Y UCCA M OUNTAIN N U CLEAR WASTE R EPOSITORY L ICENSING P ROCEDUR e
• Vincent Ialenti ([email protected]), Department of Anthropology, Cornell University, USA
This paper carves out a preliminary lens for theorizing decision-making practices in nuclear waste
management programs in preparation for my upcoming ethnographic research on the ONKALO
deep geological repository in Olkiluoto, Finland. To this end, it examines the legal architecture
of the United States’ failed construction licensing procedure for a permanent nuclear waste disposal facility at Yucca Mountain, focusing on its novel compliance horizons which extend the
32
ambit of risk governance one million years into the future. After a brief history of this regulatory regime, the Yucca project’s core legislation – namely, the 1982 U.S. Nuclear Waste Policy
Act – is analyzed via theories of “legal personhood” influential in Anthropology and Science &
Technology Studies. From this vantage point, the licensing procedure is revealed as being modeled on a deeply conventional, and perhaps even archaic, template of legal adjudication. That
is, it empowers the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as fact-producer, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) as rule-definer, and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
as impartial judge responsible for evaluating the DOE’s risk models as “facts” according to the
EPA’s radiation exposure standards as “rules.” After examining the implications of transposing
this “rule-facts-judge” figure to structure the repository licensing decision, the paper returns to the
problem of regulating “deep time.” How should laws that shape relations between societies of the
present and societies of the distant future be structured? Can deploying such familiar legal models
lead to effective governance of nuclear waste’s unique horizons of risk?
Keywords: Nuclear waste management; risk governance; bureaucratic decision-making; predictive modeling; legal epistemology; late modernity
3. N EGOTIATIONS ON THE F UTURE OF J OINT F INAL D ISPOSAL OF S PENT N UCLEAR F UEL IN
F INLAND : A NALYSIS OF THE M OTIVES , R ESOURCES AND TACTICS OF THE K EY ACTORS
• Matti Kojo ([email protected]), School of Management, University of Tampere, Finland
Spent nuclear fuel management is a vital part of nuclear energy production. Internationally Finland
is deemed as a forerunner in spent nuclear fuel management as the plan to dispose of the spent
fuel into the bedrock at the Olkiluoto site in the Municipality of Eurajoki has proceeded smoothly.
Parliament has issued the Decision-in-Principle regarding the geological disposal in Finland and
neither the safety authority nor the proposed host municipality has used its veto power to halt the
process.
The current Finnish model is based on national responsibility, i.e. used fuel produced in Finland
shall be disposed of permanently in Finland. According to the Nuclear Energy Act nuclear utilities are licensees under waste management obligation. Export and import of nuclear waste is
also prohibited by the legislation. In practice, planning and implementation of spent nuclear fuel
management is carried out by the nuclear waste management company Posiva, owned by the two
licensees under waste management obligation, i.e. Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) and Fortum Power
and Heat (FPH). Their co-operation, framed by Finnish the nuclear waste policy and legislation,
has been the basis of the national spent nuclear fuel management model.
However, the national model is facing new challenges due to the spent nuclear fuel management
plan of the new nuclear utility Fennovoima, established in 2007. The company, which is a competitor of TVO and FPH in nuclear energy production in Finland, was issued a Decision-in-Principle
for a new nuclear power plant unit in 2010. Fennovoima has planned to take care of its used fuel
by the help of Posiva, but Posiva and its owners have refused to negotiate on the joint solution
and stated the newcomer needs to plan a final repository of its own, i.e. a second repository in
Finland. Only after the establishment of a working party by the Ministry of Employment and the
Economy, vested with the power to force the licensees to cooperate in waste management, the
closer discussions between the utilities and Posiva were started in 2012.
33
The objective of the paper is analyse motives, resources and tactics of the key actors negotiating
the future of the joint final disposal of spent nuclear fuel in Finland. Data consists of newspaper articles and publicly available documents related to the issue. The theoretical framework is
based on analyzing mechanisms of actor power in negotiation on technological development. The
paper is a part of the International Socio-Technical Challenges for Implementing Geological Disposal (InSOTEC; see www.insotec.eu) research project within the seventh Euratom Framework
Program.
C.4 Transition Policy of Green Growth: Conceptual and Practical Perspectives
Aalto University School of Business Main Building, Room C350
1. I NNOVATION S YSTEM A NALYSIS : A F RAMEWORK FOR ACCELERATING G REEN G ROWTH
• Marko Hekkert ([email protected]), Utrecht University, Netherlands
2. T HE ROLE OF G OVERNMENT P OLICY
TIONAL E XPERIENCES
IN
S TIMULATING G REEN G ROWTH : I NTERNA -
• Matthias Weber ([email protected]), Austrian Institute of Technology
3. T OWARDS G REEN G ROWTH - C AN T RANSITION A PPROACHES M AKE A D IFFERENCE ?
• Christopher Palmberg ([email protected]), Tekes, Finland
4. S HAPING PATHS TO R ENEWABLE E NERGY M ARKETS IN F INLAND
• Nina Wessberg ([email protected]), VTT, Technical Research Center of Finland
• Johanna Kohl ([email protected]), VTT, Technical Research Center of Finland
• Annele Eerola ([email protected]), VTT, Technical Research Center of Finland
• Torsti Loikkanen ([email protected]), VTT, Technical Research Center of Finland
• Mikko Dufva ([email protected]), VTT, Technical Research Center of Finland
• Sirkku Kivisaari ([email protected]), VTT, Technical Research Center of Finland
Environmental issues such as clean and green energy technologies have been considered as the
most important global grand challenges but also as most promising business areas of the future.
Today environmental and sustainable energy technologies are driven especially by the climate
change challenge, and the necessity of paradigm change of the global energy production and
consumption structure is evidently the major global grand challenge. Of particular importance this
challenge is for small open countries such as Finland whose economies and welfare are not only
34
dependent on worldwide developments in grand challenges but who can also benefit of emerging
economic and business opportunities in selected niche innovation areas.
The paradigm change of the global sustainable energy production and consumption towards a
new sustainable and innovative energy system necessitates deep societal changes in financing,
legislation, policies, education, dissemination etc. Pilot and prototype projects of renewable energy production and consumption, related innovative governmental regulation and promotion and
bottom-up actions among different actors and stakeholders are necessary parts of this transitional
systemic change. Moreover, government policy plays an exceptionally important role in the creation and promotion of emerging market for sustainable energy technologies and in the system
change. The main challenge in policy field is to create integrated strategy especially of innovation, energy and environmental policies.
According to previous studies, entrepreneurs in Finland find it very difficult to create domestic
pilot projects for new renewable energy technologies. Hence, in order to be able to create Finnish
export business within renewable energy it would be extremely important to develop better understanding of the existing systemic barriers and to find ways of overcoming them.
This paper introduces some preliminary findings of our SUSER project, funded by the TEKES
Green Growth programme. The analytical framework of the SUSER project comes from transition management and systemic innovation approach. A number of Finnish cases are analysed,
applying the Multi-Level Perspective framework, in order to illustrate the barriers and drivers of
the renewable energy niche market development in concrete terms. A strong emphasis is on increasing the understanding of system innovations and path-dependencies of the Finnish energy
system.
The empirical context of our study is in energy options within smart/eco city concept. We compare the prerequisites of solar energy markets to those of bio energy markets in Finnish smart
city construction business. Solar energy is still radical energy option in Finland, while especially
wood-based bio energy has some sort of momentum and strong forest industry based old regime.
In our paper we examine how these different regime backgrounds affect the market creation processes. For instance, the rationales, roles and impacts of R&D and political programs in shaping
the developments in these two renewable energy markets are examined, paying also attention to
the impacts of for instance educational system and other societal reflections.
T UESDAY 6 N OVEMBER 2012
16:15 -17:45
Parallel Thematic Sessions D
D.1 The Energy Industry, Risk Governance and Trade-Offs
Aalto University School of Business Main Building, Board Room
1. E NERGY D ISTRIBUTION S YSTEM O PERATOR
C ASES
35
IN
I NTERACTION
WITH
S OCIETY: T WO
• Bauke Steenhuisen ([email protected]), Faculty Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
• Wijnand Veeneman, Faculty Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of
Technology, Netherlands
• Leen van Doorn, Alliander, Netherlands
• Harry van Breen, Alliander, Netherlands
This paper is about a Dutch energy distribution system operator (DSO) that interacts during local
infrastructure projects with its direct stakeholders to maximize their performance in the public
interest. Projects are for example to replace, relocate, remove or reconstruct parts of the gas and
electricity networks. At the same time, this DSO is heavy regulated since the market reforms,
although it remained a public monopoly. This regulation forces the DSO to yearly increase its
efficiency and production. These two ambitions – made-to-measure projects and yearly more efficiency – increases pressure on the DSO and the way it organizes for interaction and flexibility.
We describe how this pressure works out in the day-to-day interactions between a DSO and its
stakeholders for critical trade-offs in day-to-day projects. Two cases are included. The first is
about a DSO interacting with a municipality to fit urban development plans aboveground with the
energy networks underground. (In the Netherlands, the DSO energy networks are buried underground.) The second case is about a DSO interacting with a water board about energy networks
and their safety risks when they are buried in dykes. For both these cases, we observe in detail
how the organizational ambition to increase efficiency thins out the social interaction to arrange
for thoughtful trade-offs. In conclusion, this provides us a new perspective on the possibilities and
limitations of DSO’s to organize forms of interaction with their stakeholders within their current
organization conditions.
2. T HE B RAZILIAN E LECTRICITY S ECTOR : D EALING WITH D EPENDENCIES
• Kristina Kramer ([email protected]), Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil, and Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
Energy security is one of the most discussed topics in Brazil. The country’s energy market is
challenged by a fast growing consumption due to population growth and the fact that Brazil is
one of the fastest-ascending major economies in the world. At the moment, Brazilian capacity
addition lags behind demand endangering future economic development. Therfore, it is necessary
to provide a secure source of energy supply. One way to ensure this is to reduce dependencies
from imported energy sources, by enhancing and establishing an own production or replacing the
imported source. This way, the composition of the energy mix will be diversified. However, the
avoidance of external dependencies is not always sufficient to secure energy supply. Moreover, the
word “external” raises the question: is there an “internal” (i.e., another) form of dependency? In
this matter, the following paper analyzes what kind of dependencies already exist in the Brazilian
electricity market, the country’s way of dealing with such and by that, the possible creation and
recration of (new) forms of dependencies.
Within the Brazilian energy market, the electricity market stands out by being the largest in South
America. Considering that the country has an uncomparable capacity for water storage, it makes
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perfect sense that the share of imported energy, such as gas (although it has increased significantly
in the last years), is minimal. The generation capacity is clearly dominated by hydroelectic plants,
making Brazil highly dependent on hydropower and vulnerable to costly power supply shortages,
as occured during the energy crises in the drought years 2001/2002. Furthermore, the dependency
on hydropower is intensified by a centralized hydroelectric plant distribution.
Brazil confronts its dependencies in two ways: reaction or acceptance. On the one hand, Brazil
introduced a range of government agendas, for example PROINFA (a programme that supports
the introduction of alterntive energy sources such as wind energy or biomass into the electricity
landscape) to accomplish the goal of auto-suficiência (eng.: self-sufficiency), by promoting diversification and pushing ahead energy efficiency. Depending on the action taken by the government,
new forms of dependency, such as an external technology dependency, can be created. As the
energy system is linked to many other systems and decision-making processes are affected by
various policies, certain kinds of dependencies are simply tolerated. This can be explained by
two ideas: the existence of interdependencies, as in the case of the binational hydropower plant:
the Iguazu dam (responsible for 25% of the total electricity generation) and the limited choices
for action due to a high and permanent pressure for economic growth, as is demonstrated by the
megaproject Belo Monte, which opposes the efford to reduce the hydropower dependency. Having
in mind that Brazil is a nation of emerging economic, social and political interest, this paper is part
of a growing body of research and will contribute to future studies on similar topics.
3. S YSTEM M ANAGEMENT AND S YSTEM FAILURE : A S OCIOLOGICAL A NALYSIS OF E X PERTS ’ AND L AYMEN ’ S I NSIGHTS OF E LECTRICITY I NFRASTRUCTURE AND ITS P ROBLEMS
• Mikko J. Virtanen ([email protected]), Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki, Finland
• Antti Silvast ([email protected]), Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki,
Finland
The reliability of electricity supply has become a topical issue in recent expert discussions, also
in social scientific research. This paper focuses on these issues and develops a sociological inquiry into the management of uncertainties in Finnish electricity both from the point of view of
electricity experts and end users. We begin by conceptualising electricity supply from a systems
theoretical point of view: as a societal infrastructure that has a persistent need of reducing complexities to accomplish its primary task. The second, empirical part of the paper explores the
relation between electricity infrastructures, electricity end users, and power outages in particular.
The background to this inquiry is a case study that consists of Finnish electricity expert interviews
(N=7), electricity end user interviews (N=9), and a questionnaire survey of Finnish electricity end
users (N=115). The main result from this exploration of the effects of failing electricity was that
lay people, while almost entirely dependent on electricity, did not reflect upon electricity supply
nearly as actively as electricity supply experts seem to expect, not even when the electric power
failed. The paper concludes by situating the difference between the rationality of electricity users
and the one of electricity experts. This is carried out by utilizing the theoretical point of view
opened in the first part of the paper.
Keywords: technological systems, electricity, power outages, risk, consumers
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D.2 Energy Consumption and Innovations II: Citizens as Energy Users
Aalto University School of Business Main Building, Room C238
1. R ETHINKING THE E XPERIENCE OF "C ONSENSUS C ONFERENCE
NATIVES ," IN C ASTILLA Y L EON , S PAIN
ABOUT
E NERGY A LTER -
• Ana Cuevas Badallo, Institute of Science and Technology Studies (IECyT), University of
Salamanca, Spain
• Tamar Groves, Institute of Science and Technology Studies (IECyT), University of Salamanca, Spain
• Jorgelina Sannazzaro ([email protected]), Institute of Science and Technology Studies
(IECyT), University of Salamanca, Spain
With this contribution we would like to present the experience of the project "Consensus Conference about energy alternatives," in Castilla y Leon, Spain. We analyzed different alternative
solutions to the problem of energy supply and the problems arising from the use of fossil fuels
and release CO2 into the atmosphere with the aim of looking for the participation of the Spanish
citizenships.
We addressed the energies included under what is known as renewable energy and a nonrenewable
energy source, but very powerful and highly effective: nuclear energy.
Consensus Conferences are a method for the citizenship participation designed to foster a debate
and to improve the contact with the public controversies about science and technology. Citizens
take on a relevant role, to commit to a series of readings and discussions with experts, culminating
in a forum open to the public.
We will describe the Phase 1, which consisted of a consulting different stakeholders, to have a
more complex set of issues to consider. We will also describe Phase 2, after incorporation into the
project of a group of researchers who collaborated in the production of material and the various
tasks for the implementation of the consensus conferences.
The purpose was to understand the different perspectives that citizens of the Castilla y Leon, Spain,
have about these issues, and collect suggestions that citizens would like to make.
The standard procedure in countries that have already developed this methodology is to select a
group of people interested in the matter, being members of a representative sample of society. The
chosen citizens have to show their interest in participating, answering to an advertisement placed
in newspapers of the chosen community.
In our case this method was not successful. The number of citizens who responded to the call
was not significant, nor adequate profile to be part of the sample. The Project Committee met
and discussed possible reasons for this failure. As a result of these considerations the committee
decided to contact the Federation of Neighbourhood Associations of Salamanca and ask them for
cooperation, but this initiative neither gave good results.
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Specifically, we propose in this paper shed light on the difficulties encountered in this project of
consensus conferences, and propose other options to attract citizens, and other possible ways of
implementation of such methodologies in Spain.
2. I NNOVATION T HEORY AND E NERGY P OLICY: T HE R ISE OF ACCELERATED E NERGY I N NOVATION AND ITS I MPLICATIONS FOR I NNOVATION T HEORY
• Mark Winskel ([email protected]), UK Energy Research Centre, Institute of Energy
Systems, University of Edinburgh, UK
This paper considers the changing dynamics of energy innovation under accelerated change imperatives. It also reflects on the role of innovation theory in sociotechnical system change, in the
context of accelerated change imperatives. It will examine the claim that prominent sustainable
innovation theories, because they articulate an essentially niche-led account of sociotechnical system change, offer a partial view of innovation dynamics for highly coupled sociotechnical systems
under accelerated innovation imperatives. This will be considered by reference to the development
of policies and institutions for accelerated energy innovation in the UK.
Under urgent change imperatives, increasingly co-ordinated regime-led innovation systems have
been instituted in the UK energy sector, yet innovation theories (and a large body of empirical
research based on those theories) are disinclined to fully interrogate the dynamics of regime-led
sociotechnical system change. In this context, prominent innovation researchers and practitioners have offered prescriptions for accelerated change which implicitly or explicitly challenge the
niche-led account. A widening gulf between policy imperatives and ontological commitments risk
leaving much of prevailing innovation theory marginal to policymaking for accelerated innovation.
Issues for consideration in the paper are: the manifestation of the ‘accelerated innovation’ imperative in changing sustainable innovation journeys within highly coupled sociotechnical systems; the
extent of the challenge to niche-led accounts presented by accelerated change imperatives; and the
implications for innovation theory and its relationship to innovation policymaking. Overall, the
paper will reflect on the question of how innovation theory might respond to accelerated change
imperatives, and how it might engage with policymakers in addressing the accelerated change
agenda.
3. I NTERNET F ORUMS AND C ITIZEN I NVENTIVENESS IN R ENEWABLE E NERGY
• Sampsa Hyysalo ([email protected]), Aalto University School of Economics, Helsinki,
Finland
• Jouni Juntunen ([email protected]), Aalto University School of Economics, Helsinki,
Finland
• Stephanie Freeman ([email protected]), Aalto University School of Economics,
Helsinki, Finland
Societal targets set for CO2 emissions and energy efficiency presume that energy end users would
become more active in improving their houses and heating systems. While policy concerns center
around lack of citizen’s engagement in these activities, some citizens are exceeding the expectations. Our research on heat pumps in Finland revealed a fair amount of tinkering around these
39
machines and over a hundred inventions by users. In the present paper we focus on these activities
and particularly their embeddedness in user run Internet forums, a new and proliferating type of
setting. Our material indicates that user run forums help otherwise dispersed and heterogeneous
communities create a specific kind learning space, a boundary infrastructure, that helps some
users to "grow inventive". The forums further support active technology relation in several ways.
In this capacity they add to our understanding of what "innovation democracy" might consist of.
The inventive in-circle lead users and their direct peer support networks appear rooted in larger
community support even as this is relatively indifferent towards their projects.
Keywords: User innovation, Internet Forums, Heat pump, Renewable Energy, Learning, DIY
D.3 Nuclear Energy and Nuclear Waste Management II: Risk Communication and Dialogue
Aalto University School of Business Arkadia Facility, Room E127
1. R ISK D IALOGUE IN A L ARGE - SCALE S CIENTIFIC E NTERPRISE : A NALYZING C OPPER
C ORROSION AS A S OCIO - TECHNICAL C HALLENGE IN F INNISH N UCLEAR WASTE M ANAGE MENT
• Tapio Litmanen ([email protected]), Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy,
University of Jyväskylä, Finland
• Tatiana Nigay, Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä,
Finland
• Jurgita Vesalainen, Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä,
Finland
According to the timetable for the Finnish nuclear waste management set out originally in the
governmental policy decision of 1983, nuclear waste company, Posiva, will submit the final applications for the construction licence by 2012 at the latest. The nuclear waste repository in Finland
is based on the Swedish KBS-3 design. The basic concept for the disposal of spent fuel is based
on its encapsulation and emplacement in crystalline rock at a depth of about 500 m. The spent
nuclear fuel is planned to be encapsulated in spheriodal graphite cast iron canisters that have an
outer 50 mm thick shield made of copper. Research, development and design work has continued
for over 30 years, but still there are some uncertainties in the spent nuclear fuel disposal model.
In this paper we are interested in how uncertainties around copper corrosion are discussed between
main actors of Finnish nuclear waste management. This issue has a long scientific history in the
KBS-3 project. The study of the issue started already in 1970s and still it is under investigation.
According to our previous study, published in spring 2012, copper corrosion is perceived as an
important challenge in geological disposal of spent nuclear fuel. We are interested in how the
implementor, Posiva Oy, has described the problem of copper corrosion in its documents and
how the regulator, The Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK), has perceived
this issue and reacted to Posiva’s research findings. The data of the analysis consists of Posiva’s
Research, Development and Technical Design (RTD) reports. In the case of STUK we analyze the
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statements the regulator has given from Posiva’s RTD-reports. In these statements STUK evaluate
the RTD- reports and make comments on the planned research, development and technical design
Posiva is planning to do. In addition to this the aim is to investigate also other scientific reports,
which deal with copper corrosion in the case of KBS-3 copper-iron canister. This research is part
of the research programs International Socio-Technical Challenges for Implementing Geological
Disposal (InSOTEC; see www.insotec.eu) and Finnish Research Programme on Nuclear Waste
Management (KYT) 2011-2014.
2. R EFRAMING OF N UCLEAR C OMMUNITIES : N UCLEAR I NDUSTRY R EINTERPRETING N U CLEAR C OMMUNITIES H EIGHTENED W ILLINGNESS TO C ONSIDER F INAL R EPOSITORY
• Mika Kari ([email protected]), Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University
of Jyväskylä, Finland
Spent nuclear fuel management is nowadays considered as a vital part of nuclear energy production. However, up to the 1970s disposal of nuclear waste was regarded as non-urgent low-tech task
and was not defined as a problem of priority. Nonetheless what had been considered fairly easily
achievable technological task turned out to be very hard socio-technical problem. Because of increased concern regarding nuclear installations and radioactivity, combined with distrust towards
the nuclear industry (and industry’s experts) fuelled by accidents and the rise of the environmental movements in 1970s, it soon became clear that siting and constructing a repository for spent
nuclear fuel would not be an easy undertaking.
In turn of the 1990s it was assessed that radioactive waste had changed from non-issue to an
‘Achilles heel’ for nuclear industry as civil high-level nuclear waste repositories had been systematically rejected. It was also suggested that places that already host waste or nuclear related
facilities (and adjacent communities) could remain the only places where repositories could possibly be welcomed; dependency on the industry making these ’nuclear oases’ susceptible for siting.
The cause of these problems has been characterised as a change in framing from promising new
technology to technological risk; from enthusiasm to rejection. Established ’nuclear oases’ - type
approach, in turn, has framed nuclear communities as exceptions from the rule because of dependent workforce and economical leverage nuclear industry has over these communities.
On the industry’s side, Forum on Stakeholder Confidence (FSC) formed by Radioactive Waste
Management Committee (RWMC) for sharing experiences about addressing the societal dimension of RWM has documented shift from the industry’s traditional ‘decide, announce and defend’
approach to ‘engage, interact and co-operate’ lately focusing on partnership and long-term relationships. In 2007 FSC brought up the idea of communities with ‘industry awareness’ stating that
willingness to consider repository should not be seen primarily as a sign of dependency but instead
building on an adding to existing cultural basis, thus attempting to reframe nuclear communities
as exceptions because of their cultural disposition.
The aim of the paper is to form a comprehensive picture of two framings of nuclear communities, ‘nuclear oases’ and ‘industry awareness’ and analyse similarities and differences in their
premises. Furthermore, paper will look at feasibility of these frames and nuclear industry’s claim
that ‘industry awareness’ should replace ‘nuclear oasis’ as the main frame. Survey data used in
the paper is from Eurajoki, Finland, the first municipality in the world to approve of spent nuclear
fuel repository within its boundaries.
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3. I N O UR BACKYARD – S TRATEGIC F RAMING OF N UCLEAR WASTE R EPOSITORY
• Hannu Hänninen ([email protected]), Department of Management, Aalto University School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland
• Sari Yli-Kauhaluoma ([email protected]), Department of Management, Aalto
University School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland
In this paper we explore the strategic framing of the planned nuclear waste repository, ONKALO
in Eurajoki, Finland. By framing we refer to a particular form of politics through which the
nuclear industry, particularly the constructor of the final disposal facility, aims to shape public risk
perceptions, to lessen the resistance of the facility in the local community, and to attach it to local
culture and values. Drawing on the literatures of both public opposition of nuclear power and
framing, we have analyzed the newsletter publications that the constructor company, Posiva, uses
in the framing process. The aim is to examine in which way the constructor company frames the
nuclear waste disposal for the local lay community in the construction site and nearby to shape
the public risk perceptions and in that way to gain acceptance for the construction project. In
particular, the study explores how the industry through meta-communication tries to influence the
ongoing understanding of the waste disposal issue and the relationship between the industry and
the local lay community. So far, the shaping of risk perceptions of nuclear power by the media
have been already studied rather extensively, but the framing of the final disposal of nuclear waste
by the nuclear power industry itself has been largely ignored. Understanding of the framing of
the nuclear industry itself, however, is important to gain comprehension of the details of multiple
logics and competing claims in the field.
The siting of the waste disposal facilities represents a difficult planning problem for the nuclear
power industry particularly because of the potential of public resistance. The fear of nuclear power
has become firmly established as a part of Western culture, and therefore the planned waste facilities are not only peacefully but sometimes even highly contested by local citizens who perceive
them as a threat to human live and environment. Local counties, respectively, usually welcome
waste repositories, because they attract new residents, boost local economy and increase tax revenues. Gaining the acceptance of local lay communities and so avoiding greater public opposition
is of central importance for the repositories works. Therefore, the nuclear industry lobbies waste
repositories to local communities and decision makers trying to shape their risk perceptions and
affect public participation in the disposal issue. The results of this study show how the industry
tries to lessen public resistance of nuclear waste disposal by strategically building an optimistic
frame for interpreting its risks. We emphasize that the framing attempts are strategic since the
industry purposefully uses optimistic framing to promote desired interpretations of the ONKALO
project, to exclude negative aspects related to the project, and thus to gain favorable reactions in
the local community regarding the ongoing design and construction work. More particularly, we
identify that the industry socially constructs the new waste repository as our project referring to
a joint project between the lay residents, industry, and county administration thus being valuable
for the whole local community; people, industry, and culture.
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