TY - JOUR
T1 - Contradictory but also complementary
T2 - National and local imaginaries in Japan and Fukushima around transitions to hydrogen and renewables
AU - Trencher, Gregory
AU - van der Heijden, Jeroen
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by Kakenhi funds (grant number 17H06505) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. The first author extends sincere thanks to all respondents who kindly cooperated for interviews and data provision. We also express gratitude to the three reviewers whose comments greatly assisted the improvement of this manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2019/3
Y1 - 2019/3
N2 - Scholarship is devoting increasing attention to the important role that socio-technical imaginaries play in materialising desirable energy futures by inspiring and propelling technological innovation strategies, mobilising stakeholders and resources, and justifying necessary policy introductions and transformations of socio-economic systems. This article contributes to this emerging scholarship by exploring two relevant cases and their interactions: Japan's national imaginary around a transition to a hydrogen society and Fukushima Prefecture's local imaginary around a post-nuclear disaster transition to a society powered 100% by both renewables and hydrogen. As we demonstrate, while the process of interaction and appropriation of the national-level hydrogen imaginary to the Fukushima context triggered contestations, friction and contradictions, we also identify positive outcomes. That is, the process of convergence encountered concurrence in stakeholder communities and complemented existing efforts to achieve a renewable energy future that is unique to this particular geography. By also exploring positive outcomes, this study moves beyond existent scholarship—which has focused on negative consequences such as tensions and contestations—to propose a nuanced appreciation of the mixed outcomes that might ensure the convergence of diverging imaginaries from differing geographical scales.
AB - Scholarship is devoting increasing attention to the important role that socio-technical imaginaries play in materialising desirable energy futures by inspiring and propelling technological innovation strategies, mobilising stakeholders and resources, and justifying necessary policy introductions and transformations of socio-economic systems. This article contributes to this emerging scholarship by exploring two relevant cases and their interactions: Japan's national imaginary around a transition to a hydrogen society and Fukushima Prefecture's local imaginary around a post-nuclear disaster transition to a society powered 100% by both renewables and hydrogen. As we demonstrate, while the process of interaction and appropriation of the national-level hydrogen imaginary to the Fukushima context triggered contestations, friction and contradictions, we also identify positive outcomes. That is, the process of convergence encountered concurrence in stakeholder communities and complemented existing efforts to achieve a renewable energy future that is unique to this particular geography. By also exploring positive outcomes, this study moves beyond existent scholarship—which has focused on negative consequences such as tensions and contestations—to propose a nuanced appreciation of the mixed outcomes that might ensure the convergence of diverging imaginaries from differing geographical scales.
KW - Energy futures
KW - Energy visions
KW - Hydrogen
KW - Japan
KW - Multi-scalar
KW - Socio-technical imaginary
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U2 - 10.1016/j.erss.2018.10.019
DO - 10.1016/j.erss.2018.10.019
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85057280871
VL - 49
SP - 209
EP - 218
JO - Energy Research and Social Science
JF - Energy Research and Social Science
SN - 2214-6296
ER -