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© The Author(s) 2020
S. Sareen (ed.), Enabling Sustainable Energy Transitions,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26891-6_9
CHAPTER 9
Practices of Legitimation and Accountability
Crises in a Range of Energy Transitions
Siddharth Sareen
Abstract This chapter draws together five wide-ranging cases related to
energy transitions. It articulates how practices of legitimation along four
registers (discursive, bureaucratic, technocratic and financial) are present
in each case to extents that differ based on how each author’s choice of
sector and focus modulates their relevance. This chapter summarises the
ways in which these practices uphold and challenge accountability crises in
each energy transition case. Such juxtaposition and consolidation allow
discernment of cross-cutting dimensions along which practices of legitimation play out. These dimensions include spatiality, temporality, opportunism, prefiguration, performativity, power-play and normalisation or
routinisation. The specification of practices of legitimation across cases
sets up a concluding synthesis which links legitimation and energy transitions with broader environmental governance scholarship on
accountability.
Keywords Legitimation • Energy transitions • Discursive •
Bureaucratic • Technocratic • Financial
S. Sareen (*)
Department of Geography, Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation,
University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
e-mail: Siddharth.Sareen@uib.no
© The Author(s) 2020
S. Sareen (ed.), Enabling Sustainable Energy Transitions,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26891-6_9
CHAPTER 9
Practices of Legitimation and Accountability
Crises in a Range of Energy Transitions
Siddharth Sareen
Abstract This chapter draws together five wide-ranging cases related to
energy transitions. It articulates how practices of legitimation along four
registers (discursive, bureaucratic, technocratic and financial) are present
in each case to extents that differ based on how each author’s choice of
sector and focus modulates their relevance. This chapter summarises the
ways in which these practices uphold and challenge accountability crises in
each energy transition case. Such juxtaposition and consolidation allow
discernment of cross-cutting dimensions along which practices of legitimation play out. These dimensions include spatiality, temporality, opportunism, prefiguration, performativity, power-play and normalisation or
routinisation. The specification of practices of legitimation across cases
sets up a concluding synthesis which links legitimation and energy transitions with broader environmental governance scholarship on
accountability.
Keywords Legitimation • Energy transitions • Discursive •
Bureaucratic • Technocratic • Financial
S. Sareen (*)
Department of Geography, Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation,
University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
e-mail: Siddharth.Sareen@uib.no