Suchergebnisse

Based upon extensive multi-archival research, this article traces the long lineage of the notion of European electricity network. Since the 1930s engineers and policy makers conceived of a geographical conception for rationalising and optimising electricity supply: a European one. This article purports that three vectors undergirded threads of continuity: institutional, intellectual and physical (technological networks). These vectors, and the actors involved in them, created strong path dependencies that kept the idea of a European system firmly on the agenda. Today's international electricity market of the European Union should be seen as an extension of this legacy.

Based upon extensive multi-archival research, this article traces the long lineage of the notion of European electricity network. Since the 1930s engineers and policy makers conceived of a geographical conception for rationalising and optimising electricity supply: a European one. This article purports that three vectors undergirded threads of continuity: institutional, intellectual and physical (technological networks). These vectors, and the actors involved in them, created strong path dependencies that kept the idea of a European system firmly on the agenda. Today's international electricity market of the European Union should be seen as an extension of this legacy.

"Dieser Artikel untersucht die Rolle der United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) aus der von Giddens' entwickelten Perspektive der Dualität von Struktur und Handlung. Häufig werden Internationale Organisationen (IOs) als Ausdruck der gesammelten Interessen ihrer nationalstaatlichen Mitglieder und damit letztlich als entscheidungsschwach dargestellt. Stattdessen argumentiert dieser Artikel, dass IOs durchaus über agency und eine eigene Agenda verfügen. Dies wird am Beispiel der UNECE deutlich, die ursprünglich als Steuerungsgremium für den europäischen Wiederaufbau konzipiert war. Am Beispiel von internen Aushandlungsprozessen zeigt der Artikel, dass die UNECE sowohl ein Resultat des Kalten Krieges als auch ein wirkmächtiger Akteur in diesem Konflikt war." (Autorenreferat)

Why did engineers and policy-makers together argue for a European electricity network? This article shows, first, how ideas of European cooperation were conceived in both circles, and second, how the two came together in an alliance that brought the idea for European grid into the League of Nations (LoN) and International Labour Organization. Non-government organizations in the field of electricity acted as intermediary platforms, and close links between some engineers and politicians enabled a next step. It argues furthermore that such an alliance was made possible through a set of shared ideas, stressing technical networks as an extension of international politics, viewing 'Europe' as an obvious unit of optimization, and relying on a 'technical' approach rather than political consultation.

In this paper we develop a socio-technical analysis of the European electricity system. We show that the relationship between high-level grand visions of an integrated European system and more pragmatic bottom-up processes of electricity system development have been a feature of the European regime for coordinating cross-border electricity flows since the 1920s. Following a period when radically different visions of a European system were proposed, the nation-state emerged as the key site of system building and constituted the core of the technological and institutional configuration. However, European grand visions persisted and this led to the creation of various forms of transnational collaboration and coordination. We discuss whether this inherited technological and institutional configuration is compatible with the contemporary desire for a European low-carbon transition and we emphasise the need for more detailed analysis of socio-technical regimes and their dynamics to inform policy and enrich transitions theory.