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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_3
CHAPTER 3
Five Easy Pieces: Legitimation at Work
in Cases Related to Energy Transitions
Siddharth Sareen
Abstract This chapter provides an overview of five energy transition cases
by describing the questions posed to five authors to guide the flow of
argument in their chapters and summarising case treatments with respect
to accountability and legitimation. It links four proposed practices of legitimation with analytical takes on wide-ranging cases. The cases span urban
energy transitions over time and space in Germany, forest and land conflicts over authority in Indonesia, urban climate targets based on carbon
metrics in Norway, the modalities of Nordic electric mobility transitions,
and biodiversity conservation and energy extraction in the USA. Pinpointing
the relevance of each case to legitimation, this chapter explicates how
questions of accountability are germane to how the energy transitions
associated with these cases impact sustainability.
Keywords Accountability • Crisis • Energy transitions • Legitimacy •
Sustainability
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_3
CHAPTER 3
Five Easy Pieces: Legitimation at Work
in Cases Related to Energy Transitions
Siddharth Sareen
Abstract This chapter provides an overview of five energy transition cases
by describing the questions posed to five authors to guide the flow of
argument in their chapters and summarising case treatments with respect
to accountability and legitimation. It links four proposed practices of legitimation with analytical takes on wide-ranging cases. The cases span urban
energy transitions over time and space in Germany, forest and land conflicts over authority in Indonesia, urban climate targets based on carbon
metrics in Norway, the modalities of Nordic electric mobility transitions,
and biodiversity conservation and energy extraction in the USA. Pinpointing
the relevance of each case to legitimation, this chapter explicates how
questions of accountability are germane to how the energy transitions
associated with these cases impact sustainability.
Keywords Accountability • Crisis • Energy transitions • Legitimacy •
Sustainability
S. Sareen (*)
Department of Geography, Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation,
University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
e-mail: Siddharth.Sareen@uib.no