Frontiers of 'green' accumulation in Europe marginal regions: understanding renewable transitions in the European capitalism to build energy democracy

在全球范围内，能源部门占碳排放的最大份额。中国对化石燃料的依赖日益加剧了气候危机。因此，向可再生能源的过渡对于人类和地球上其他居民的命运来说是一个至关重要的社会技术过程。然而，脱碳并不是资本主义社会转型的唯一目标。它们以私有化的可再生能源和同样私人（但得到政府补贴）的投资为基础，成为资本积累的主要杠杆。这种二元性不可避免地影响到任何寻求民主组织过渡的项目。这项奖学金将巩固我的研究产生的对资本主义绿色进程的创新理解。它还将促进广泛的理论和分析贡献，这些贡献可以在发展更公正、公平和文化上适当的可再生过渡方面发挥关键作用。该奖学金将建立在我的研究基础上，该研究调查了欧洲边缘地区围绕可再生能源的资本积累。通过结合两种可再生能源系统（意大利南部的风能发电和德国东部的农业沼气发电）的案例研究的综合理论阐述和实证观察，分析了作为积累机会的“绿色”与作为合法化框架的杠杆作用之间未被探索的关系。我的研究表明，在这两个案例研究中，可再生能源向新自由主义治理原则的过渡将企业资本的注意力吸引到了生态系统流量（可再生能源）和长期以来对投资策略微不足道或毫无兴趣的空间上。就在几十年前，南意大利的风力或东德的土壤生产能源作物的能力——加上农村空间提供的能源作物——几乎不会引起投资者的兴趣。这种结构性变化将欧洲资本主义的两个半外围地区推向了能源政策和市场的核心，并带来了一些影响。在有利法规的推动下，大型资本的到来促使社会经济结构和民主生活在多个层面上进行了深刻重组，影响了当地社区自主决定其发展道路的能力。此外，补贴政策和低地价结合在一起，有力地推动了投机性投资者将可再生能源补贴作为获取金融租金的目标。随之而来的征地压力加剧了围绕土地的冲突。它还减少了当地社区从其居住的领土上的可再生能源项目中获取和重新分配金融和非金融利润的可能性。通过这项奖学金，我将推进我的研究，将其转化为格式，并将其转化为可以与不同的受众交谈和参与的领域。为了进一步理解资本积累和社会经济边际性如何与转型治理相互作用，我将加强对能源民主的国际讨论。为此，我将实施一项活动计划，旨在加强我在学术界内外的专业形象和网络，面向民间社会组织、社会联盟和公共机构，系统地产生学术、政策和社会影响。虽然我将通过在高级期刊上发表文章和后续研究来丰富专业辩论，但我将通过多模式网络平台、报告、播客和国际研讨会传播我的研究，为政策和政治实践提供工具。因此，科学界、从业者、政策制定者和致力于实现可再生转型的活动家将获得广泛的知识财富，并提供更真正民主的基本服务。

The energy sector is responsible for the largest share of carbon emissions at the global scale. Day by day, its reliance on fossil fuels exacerbates the climate crisis. Transitions to renewable energy are therefore a vital sociotechnical process for the fate of humanity and the other earth's inhabitants. Yet, decarbonisation is not the only aim transitions serve in capitalist societies. Based on privatised renewable sources and equally private -yet publicly subsidised- investment, they work as major levers for capital accumulation. This duality inescapably affects any project seeking to organise transitions democratically.This fellowship will consolidate the innovative understandings of capitalism's greening processes that my research generated. It will also advance a wide range of theoretical and analytical contributions which can play a pivotal role in the development of more just, equitable and culturally appropriate renewable transitions. The fellowships will build on my research which investigated capital accumulation around renewable energy in Europe's marginal regions. It analysed the under-explored relationship between the 'green' as an accumulation opportunity and its leveraging as a legitimation framework, by combining comprehensive theoretical elaborations and empirical observations from case studies of two renewable energy systems: the generation of wind energy in southern Italy and agricultural biogas in eastern Germany.My research revealed that, in both case studies, the alignment of renewable transitions to neoliberal governance principles drew corporate capitals' attention to ecosystem flows (renewable sources) and spaces that had long been of negligible or null interest to investment strategies. Only a few decades ago, hardly would sources such as the wind force in South Italy or the capacity of east Germany's soil to produce energy crops -alongside the rural spaces giving access to them- have aroused investors' appetites.This structural change pushed two semi-peripheral regions of the European capitalism closer to the core of energy policies and markets, with several implications. The arrival of large capitals,facilitated by favourable regulations, prompted a deep reorganisation of the socioeconomic fabric and democratic life at multiple scales, affecting local communities' capacity to self-determine their development paths.iFurthermore, subsidisation policies and low land prices combined into a powerful driver for speculative investors targeting renewable subsidies to extract financial rent.The ensuing pressure towards land acquisitions increased conflicts around land. It also reduced the possibility for local communities to capture and redistribute financial and non-financial profits from renewable energy projects in the territories they inhabited.Through this fellowship, I will advance my research by translating it into formats and transposing it into realms that can speak to and engage with different audiences.In furthering our comprehension of how capital accumulation and socioeconomic marginality interplay with transitions governance,I will strengthen international discussions towards energy democracy.To this end, I will implement a programme of activities tailored to reinforce my professional profile and networks across academia and beyond it, towards civil society organisations, social coalitions, and public institutions, generating academic,policy and social impact systematically. While I will enrich specialised debates through publications in high-ranking journals and follow-up research, I will offer instruments to policy and political practice by disseminating my research through a multi-mode web platform, a report, a podcast, and an international workshop.An extensive wealth of knowledge will so be available to scientific communities, practitioners, policy makers and activists dedicated to rendering renewable transitions, and the provision of essential services,more genuinely democratic.