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the role of both inequitable power relations and more structural factors
such as path dependency and regime persistence during energy transitions.
It directs attention not only to overt confrontation and contestation but
also to the absence of important deliberations where power grabs or
incumbency prematurely close particular energy futures. In the Nordic
electric mobility transitions case, the automobility regime and existing
biases of systems of mobility are reproduced in the roll-out of electric
mobility to a greater extent than the adoption of public and non-motorised
transport solutions. In the Indonesian land conflict case, West Javanese
villagers are unable to even consider recourse to authority at the national
scale for their marginalised concerns and resort to the local scale.
10.1.7
Routinisation
Legitimation plays out through enactment within the existing sociopolitical fabric, at times achieving incremental change with greater ease and
effectiveness than through more disruptive attempts at energy transitions.
Through routinisation or normalisation, practices of legitimation work
their way into the bureaucratic and banal decision-making apparatus of
existing, often powerful institutions. Rather than subjecting these institutions themselves to scrutiny, such legitimation reorients and repurposes
their internal functioning. In the Colorado case, the choice of a habitat
exchange is seen as a workable middle ground that can plausibly bring
energy extractive industries on board in a politically feasible and efficient
manner to replace sage-grouse habitats and conserve the declining population; Environmental Defense focuses its efforts not on protesting fossil
fuels but on assembling requisite data and market infrastructure. In the
Nordic electric mobility transitions case, while the roll-out of electric
mobility might suffer from existing problems of mobility systems, policies
to encourage and coordinate it have made the Nordic countries global
front-runners in electric mobility adoption.
10.2 APPlying PRActices of legitimAtion AcRoss
RegisteRs AnD Dimensions
Having defined the dimensions, the next section illustrates how the registers along which legitimation is practised can be applied within each
dimension. We draw on the five cases whose practices of legitimation have
10 CONCLUSION: LEGITIMATION AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN ENERGY…
the role of both inequitable power relations and more structural factors
such as path dependency and regime persistence during energy transitions.
It directs attention not only to overt confrontation and contestation but
also to the absence of important deliberations where power grabs or
incumbency prematurely close particular energy futures. In the Nordic
electric mobility transitions case, the automobility regime and existing
biases of systems of mobility are reproduced in the roll-out of electric
mobility to a greater extent than the adoption of public and non-motorised
transport solutions. In the Indonesian land conflict case, West Javanese
villagers are unable to even consider recourse to authority at the national
scale for their marginalised concerns and resort to the local scale.
10.1.7
Routinisation
Legitimation plays out through enactment within the existing sociopolitical fabric, at times achieving incremental change with greater ease and
effectiveness than through more disruptive attempts at energy transitions.
Through routinisation or normalisation, practices of legitimation work
their way into the bureaucratic and banal decision-making apparatus of
existing, often powerful institutions. Rather than subjecting these institutions themselves to scrutiny, such legitimation reorients and repurposes
their internal functioning. In the Colorado case, the choice of a habitat
exchange is seen as a workable middle ground that can plausibly bring
energy extractive industries on board in a politically feasible and efficient
manner to replace sage-grouse habitats and conserve the declining population; Environmental Defense focuses its efforts not on protesting fossil
fuels but on assembling requisite data and market infrastructure. In the
Nordic electric mobility transitions case, while the roll-out of electric
mobility might suffer from existing problems of mobility systems, policies
to encourage and coordinate it have made the Nordic countries global
front-runners in electric mobility adoption.
10.2 APPlying PRActices of legitimAtion AcRoss
RegisteRs AnD Dimensions
Having defined the dimensions, the next section illustrates how the registers along which legitimation is practised can be applied within each
dimension. We draw on the five cases whose practices of legitimation have
10 CONCLUSION: LEGITIMATION AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN ENERGY…