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attention to how sociotechnical and political economic configurations
evolve within the same spatial context. This concentrates power at different spatial scales and makes different societal choices politically viable. It
opens up new technological possibilities through arenas of innovation
where timing and concomitant infrastructural investment dynamically
determine energy futures. In Berlin’s historical energy transitions case,
these transitions are refracted by changing mores of political pressure
interwoven with societal expectations and the material evolution of energy
infrastructure. This includes the intergenerational equity aspects that
underpin current campaigns to climate-proof Berlin’s energy infrastructure. In the Indonesian land conflict case, citizens squeezed off their land
by an authoritarian regime are forced to adopt new tactics to retain land
control over time. This brings about new competing recognition of institutional authority by subjects. They seek to strengthen the state at the
local scale where it is more responsive to their needs, creating new governmental configurations over time.
10.1.3 Opportunism
Legitimation plays out in powerful ways at specific conjunctures that can
be definitive for a given energy transition. These moments of rupture or
leverage points can be understood through the cross-cutting dimension of
opportunism. Opportunistic or ad hoc legitimation capitalises on a circumstantial opening to wrest control of new possibilities and establish
them in sociomaterial form through informal but rapidly formalised means
rather than through existing formulae or behavioural patterns. It thus
constitutes a quantum change in how society is configured with regard to
a particular energy transition. In the Indonesian land conflict case, West
Javanese villagers exercise their right to pay rent with discretion, recognising a local authority in the form of the Village Office rather than the central government. This in turn shapes relations of authority in favour of
their recognition as landholders. In the Norwegian zero growth targetsetting case, a global 2 °C climate mitigation target is translated into a
Zero Growth Objective to limit car traffic.
10.1.4
Prefiguration
Legitimation plays out in premeditated ways, where actors strategically
manoeuvre energy transitions to secure advantageous new sectoral
10 CONCLUSION: LEGITIMATION AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN ENERGY…
attention to how sociotechnical and political economic configurations
evolve within the same spatial context. This concentrates power at different spatial scales and makes different societal choices politically viable. It
opens up new technological possibilities through arenas of innovation
where timing and concomitant infrastructural investment dynamically
determine energy futures. In Berlin’s historical energy transitions case,
these transitions are refracted by changing mores of political pressure
interwoven with societal expectations and the material evolution of energy
infrastructure. This includes the intergenerational equity aspects that
underpin current campaigns to climate-proof Berlin’s energy infrastructure. In the Indonesian land conflict case, citizens squeezed off their land
by an authoritarian regime are forced to adopt new tactics to retain land
control over time. This brings about new competing recognition of institutional authority by subjects. They seek to strengthen the state at the
local scale where it is more responsive to their needs, creating new governmental configurations over time.
10.1.3 Opportunism
Legitimation plays out in powerful ways at specific conjunctures that can
be definitive for a given energy transition. These moments of rupture or
leverage points can be understood through the cross-cutting dimension of
opportunism. Opportunistic or ad hoc legitimation capitalises on a circumstantial opening to wrest control of new possibilities and establish
them in sociomaterial form through informal but rapidly formalised means
rather than through existing formulae or behavioural patterns. It thus
constitutes a quantum change in how society is configured with regard to
a particular energy transition. In the Indonesian land conflict case, West
Javanese villagers exercise their right to pay rent with discretion, recognising a local authority in the form of the Village Office rather than the central government. This in turn shapes relations of authority in favour of
their recognition as landholders. In the Norwegian zero growth targetsetting case, a global 2 °C climate mitigation target is translated into a
Zero Growth Objective to limit car traffic.
10.1.4
Prefiguration
Legitimation plays out in premeditated ways, where actors strategically
manoeuvre energy transitions to secure advantageous new sectoral
10 CONCLUSION: LEGITIMATION AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN ENERGY…