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Orchestrating the urban : politics of multilevel sustainable energy governance in urban India
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Basu, Sumedha (2022) Orchestrating the urban : politics of multilevel sustainable energy governance in urban India. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3853334
Abstract
Urban governments are emerging as ‘strategic sites’ for responding to global calls for sustainable energy transitions - not just in decentralised ways but also in more democratic ways. However, beyond ambitions, actual actions by urban governments have been underwhelming, including in India. In India, there is an emerging interest in understanding cities’ responses to climate change, including sustainable energy. However, the multilevel politics of urban and energy governance has been less critically explored.
Responding to these under-explored avenues, this thesis explores the politics of sustainable energy governance in urban India as manifested in the power operationalisation within multilevel governing structures to shape the responses of urban governments. I adapt Barnett and Duvall’s multidimensional power conceptualisation and taxonomy to develop a framework for power analysis in the three cities of Surat, Pune, and Kolkata. The thesis bases its analytical framework on a processual notion of power, defined as the ‘production of effects’ to understand the ways different types of power are operationalised concurrently to orchestrate the actions of other actors in a multilevel governance system. The analysis is presented as a complex web of power mechanisms identified inductively in each of the case studies that are then generalised to unpack the larger politics of urban sustainable energy governance and understand the diversity of responses between different Indian cities.
The study finds that evolving and path-dependent structures underlying India’s energy transition trajectory are privileging higher-level actors with more control over institutional and discursive realms. These actors utilise this control to centralise more power and relegate urban governments as non-entities or energy consumers. However, the study also highlights the mechanisms that can be cautiously considered to be green shoots and can potentially challenge this elite policy capture to some extent.
| Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races J Political Science > JQ Political institutions (Asia, Africa, Australia, Pacific Area, etc.) J Political Science > JS Local government Municipal government |
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| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Renewable energy sources, Sustainable development -- India, Sustainable urban development -- India, Municipal government -- India | ||||
| Official Date: | January 2022 | ||||
| Dates: |
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| Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
| Theses Department: | Department of Politics and International Studies | ||||
| Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
| Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
| Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Kuzemko, Caroline, 1970- ; Page, Edward, 1968- | ||||
| Format of File: | |||||
| Extent: | 269 leaves : illustrations, map | ||||
| Language: | eng |
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