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Socio-Technical Change and the Politics of Urban Infrastructure: Managing Energy in Berlin Between Dictatorship and Democracy

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Socio-Technical Change and the Politics of Urban Infrastructure: Managing Energy in Berlin Between Dictatorship and Democracy View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Dokumenten-Publikationsserver der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin 51(7) 1432–1448, May 2014 Special issue article: Urban energy transitions: Places, processes and politics of socio-technical change Socio-technical Change and the Politics of Urban Infrastructure: Managing Energy in Berlin between Dictatorship and Democracy Timothy Moss [Paper first received, May 2011; in final form, April 2012] Abstract This paper reconstructs the trajectory of energy efficiency policies in Berlin from the 1920s to today in order to illustrate how the shifting political and socioeconomic conditions of a city can shape urban energy provision and consumption. Taking a long-term perspective on the relationship between urban transitions and energy policy, it investigates how the geo-political turbulence, regime diversity and socio- economic volatility experienced by 20th-century Berlin influenced strategies of elec- tricity generation and use in the city. Drawing on different ways of conceptualising change to socio-technical systems in the literature, the paper’s findings present a more differentiated picture of urban energy transitions than notions of path depen- dency and transition pathways imply, highlighting the importance of non-linear trends, political contestation and crisis discourses in and beyond the city and their relevance for reconfiguring urban energy systems today. Keywords: Berlin, energy transitions, socio-technical change, urban infrastructure 1. Introduction The shift to a low-carbon society has paradigm is for a world which is energy effi- become a clarion call for decision-makers cient and independent of fossil fuels. across the globe. Whether to combat cli- Experiences in pursuing this policy goal mate change, peak oil, energy insecurity or suggest that the notion of changing track rising energy prices, the new policy from a fossil-based to a post-fossil economy Timothy Moss is in the Leibniz Institute for Regional Development and Structural Planning (IRS), Flakenstraße 28–31, Erkner 15537, Germany. Email: [email protected]. 0042-0980 Print/1360-063X Online Ó 2013 Urban Studies Journal Limited DOI: 10.1177/0042098013500086 MANAGING ENERGY IN BERLIN 1433 is grossly simplistic. Energy transitions are, volatility experienced by 20th-century in practice, highly complex, non-linear, Berlin influence strategies of electricity gen- contested and spatially diverse phenomena eration and use in the city? The paper inves- requiring a sound understanding of the tigates what changed—and what did not structures and dynamics which shape sys- change—in the city’s energy policy as a tems of energy provision and use. Scholars result of radical and repeated re-ordering of have made significant contributions to its political economy. It explores how energy deconstructing oversimplistic notions of policy in general—and energy efficiency in energy transitions. Three of these—relating particular—was enrolled to protect the to the importance of socio-technical sys- city’s diverse political systems and respond tems, cities and historical experience—are to socioeconomic shifts. It seeks to illustrate, central to this paper. Firstly, changes to further, how the ‘urban’ of Berlin’s energy energy provision and use are understood not policies was bound up in wider national and simply as the application of a new technology, international geo-political contexts. but as a reordering of the multiple political, Rather than focus on a particular energy organisational, financial, material and cul- technology or socio-technical innovation tural components which constitute a socio- introduced at one point in time, the paper technical system for energy (Summerton, investigates energy efficiency as a more suit- 1994; Star, 1999). Secondly, cities are today able issue for revealing shifts and continuities widely acknowledged as important loci of in energy policy over a long period. It (future) energy consumption and key players explores in particular the underlying tension of energy and climate change policy, gen- between the efficient use of energy resources erating keen interest in the relationship on the one hand and the efficient use of between socio-technical and urban transi- energy infrastructures on the other, demon- tions (Bulkeley and Betsill, 2003; McFarlane strating when and why energy efficiency was and Rutherford, 2008; Hodson and Marvin, taken up (and discarded) as a policy priority. 2010a, 2010b; Bulkeley et al., 2011b). The case for selecting Berlin is essentially Thirdly, research into the historical develop- two-fold. Firstly, Berlin had by the 1930s ment of our (urban) energy systems has come to symbolise the networked city of revealed the importance of path dependen- Europe. By virtue of its huge electrical cies, discarded alternatives and contingency industry Berlin became known as the in forming today’s socio-technical systems ‘Elektropolis’ (Hughes, 1983, p. 177), repre- (Tarr, 1979; Hughes, 1983; Tarr and Dupuy, senting a model of urban modernity. 1988; Melosi, 2000). Secondly, in the course of the 20th century, Much of this literature is targeted at Berlin came to represent less a model than explaining how energy systems change, over an exceptional case, characterised by radical time and in specific contexts (see section 2). political ruptures and multiple crises. Each The focus is on specific energy transitions: of these crises—whether the Depression, how they emerge, are promoted or con- the Nazi seizure of power, wartime destruc- strained in urban contexts. Conversely, this tion or political division into East and West paper looks at urban transitions and how Berlin and subsequent reunification—had a they influence energy policy. Taking the city far-reaching impact on the city’s energy of Berlin as an example, it poses the key systems (for historical overviews see question: how did the geo-political turbu- Bewag, 1984; Varchmin and Schubert, lence, regime diversity and socioeconomic 1988). Exploring how infrastructure 1434 TIMOTHY MOSS systems—generally renowned for their 2. Conceptualising Change to inherent stability and path dependency— Urban Infrastructure Systems were affected by the political turbulence and diversity of 20th-century Berlin throws into The infrastructure systems which provide sharp relief attributes and dynamics of these cities with energy, water and wastewater socio-technical systems often hidden in services have long become symbols of stabi- other cities by the patina of familiarity (see lity and durability. Designed for decades, Summerton, 1994). embedded in the urban substrata and sus- In line with the other contributions to tained by complex institutional arrange- this Special Issue, the paper explores the ments, these systems conjure up notions of evolving relationship between cities, urban immobility, obduracy and resilience change and energy policies. Within this (Summerton, 1994; Hommels, 2005). Since broad programme, its particular function the 1980s, historians of technology have lies in addressing three core themes in the come a long way in providing explanations following way. Firstly, it confronts studies for the emergence and subsequent stabilisa- of current transitions with experiences from tion of so-called large technical systems the past to illustrate the non-linear, multi- (LTS), from their early beginnings in the ple and fluid pathways of urban energy hands of inventors, entrepreneurs and policy in history (see Hughes, 1983; Melosi financiers to the large urban networks and Pratt, 2007). Secondly, it highlights the familiar to urban landscapes today (Tarr, highly political nature of urban energy, 1979; Hughes, 1983, 1987; Tarr and Dupuy, both reflecting and reinforcing power con- 1988; Melosi, 2000). Central to the obdu- figurations and institutional arrangements racy of these systems, recent research in the city and beyond (see McFarlane and agrees, are their socio-technical characteris- Rutherford, 2008; Coutard and Rutherford, tics. A socio-technical system, such as an 2010). Thirdly, it analyses the urban contex- electricity supply network, comprises not tualisation of energy policy, in particular merely a series of physical artefacts and the ways in which city politics and urban technologies, but also the actors involved in development shape energy provision and providing and using the services, institu- use and, conversely, energy infrastructure tional rules and norms for operating the systems influence urban life (see Bulkeley systems, cultural values and the economic et al., 2011a, 2011b). resources to construct and maintain them The paper is structured into three sections. (Hughes, 1987; Summerton, 1994; Star, The first section assesses the strengths and 1999). These attributes interact in a ‘seam- weaknesses of various ways of conceptualis- less web’ to create, stabilise and, subse- ing change to urban infrastructure systems in quently, sustain a particular socio-technical the literature. The second section explores configuration. Socio-technical systems the discourses and policies surrounding become thereby particularly prone to path energy efficiency in Berlin from 1920 to the dependency: once established, they prove present, tracing continuities and change intrinsically resistant to radical change. across highly diverse political and socioeco- The high degree of path dependency gen- nomic contexts. The paper concludes with erally attributed to socio-technical systems reflections on how
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