Energy democracy: A digital future?
Energy democracy: A digital future?
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DOI：
10.1016/j.erss.2022.102732
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发表时间：
2022-09
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
E. Judson;Oscar Fitch-Roy;I. Soutar
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
E. Judson;Oscar Fitch-Roy;I. Soutar
能源民主的学术探索产生了丰富的理论基础，在不同的地理，社会，意识形态和技术背景下表现出显着的多元化。本文通过考虑与能源系统数字化相关的社会技术转型如何影响能源民主的理论和实践来发展文献。我们的分析借鉴了能源民主的三个方面：人民主权，参与式治理和公民所有权。数字化被证明是当前的挑战和能源民主的行使和研究的新途径。首先，数字化通过使能源公民角色多样化和使问责制复杂化，同时促进和限制了人民主权的行使。其次，数字化在技能、知识和资源获取方面带来了新的风险层面，这可能会将公民排除在参与性治理之外。第三，数字化通过引入新的材料-软件依赖关系和重新定义支撑能源系统的资产，挑战了公民所有权的普遍概念。最后，数字化从根本上改变了决策的性质，可能会破坏目前对这一概念及其民主功能的理解。“数字能源民主”的进一步探索将对该领域的研究和实践具有价值。
Academic exploration of energy democracy has produced a rich theorization of its foundations that exhibits significant pluralism in response to different geographic, social, ideological and technical contexts. This paper develops the literature by considering how sociotechnical transitions associated with energy system digitalization may affect the theory and praxis of energy democracy. Our analysis draws on three dimensions of energy democracy: popular sovereignty, participatory governance, and civic ownership. Digitalization is shown to both present challenges and new avenues for the exercise and study of energy democracy. Firstly, digitalization simultaneously enables and constrains the exercise of popular sovereignty by diversifying energy citizen roles and complicating accountability. Secondly, digitalization creates new dimensions of risk around skills, knowledge and resource access, which can exclude citizens from participatory governance. Thirdly, digitalization challenges common conceptions of civic ownership by introducing new material-software dependencies and re-defining the assets that underpin the energy system. Finally, digitalization fundamentally changes the nature of decision-making, potentially undermining current understandings of the concept and its democratic function. Further exploration of ‘digital energy democracy’ would hold value for research and practice in the sector.