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Ageism, welfare, and the energy transition: a comparative analysis of the perceptions among the elderly in Poland and Norway
Full text linkBackground> One of the potential dimensions on which exclusion and injustice may occur in energy transitionsis age. Age-based patterns of exclusion—ageism—has recently been conceptualized in the context of decar-bonization as energy ageism. This paper offers a comparative empirical analysis of the senior citizens’ outlooktowards an imminent energy transition as well as the impact of energy poverty in two European countries: Norway and Poland. Results: Drawing on interviews and focus groups with Polish and Norwegian seniors, we present the differencesand similarities between the two countries, and the determinants of energy ageism, as well as the concept’s overallapplicability and empirical usefulness. We find that socioeconomic conditions outweigh ageism, that is, the resil-ience of senior citizens in dealing with energy poverty during a transition is conditioned by their material standingand welfare state robustness rather than age based. An important factor is household heating technology, combinedwith economic vulnerability can push some individuals into energy poverty, while others using alternative sourcesof heat can navigate through energy crises unscathed. Conclusions: We note the importance of mainstreaming social inclusion considerations in energy policy and of tar-geted digital competence building which can enhance senior citizen integration in the energy transition. Lowerlevels of digital competences among senior citizens certainly play a role and need to be addressed with educationprograms to increase participation. In both countries, household heating is a major issue and heating sources arestrong predictors of energy poverty and regulatory measures and subsidies should be designed at national, regional,and municipal level to assist vulnerable groups in this area.Ageism, welfare, and the energy transition: a comparative analysis of the perceptions among the elderly in Poland and NorwaypublishedVersio
Prosumer solar power and energy storage forecasting in countries with limited data: The case of Thailand
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Bottom-up development as framed freedom: developmentality and donor power
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Road through a broken place: The BRI in post-coup Myanmar
Full text linkIn the wake of the 2021 coup, Myanmar experienced a renewed civil war that has fragmented the country along a myriad of old and new conflict lines. Despite the high-intensity violence across many regions of the country, China is still pursuing an ambitious connectivity project under its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI): The China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) is meant to connect Myanmar to the Chinese market and boost Myanmar’s industrial development. However, the challenging post-coup environment has required significant changes in China’s approach to local infrastructure development and empowered a new set of subnational actors on both sides of the border. This article analyzes how CMEC has fared since the coup, and how the fragmentation of Myanmar has gone hand in hand with that of Chinese agency in the country. Contrary to prevailing descriptions of the BRI as a coherent, strategic, and top-down project, we argue that the case of Myanmar exposes the degree to which it is shaped by local interests and circumstances, and the limits of centralized BRI implementation. Finally, it is likely that adjustments in Chinese policy triggered by the situation in Myanmar will have more long-term consequences for the future of the BRI, specifically a more direct involvement in local security efforts and greater engagement with local authorities beyond the central government.Road through a broken place: The BRI in post-coup MyanmarpublishedVersio
The Multilateral System: Between Reform and Deinstitutionalization
No full textGlobal governance is changing fast. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the conflict in Gaza are amplifying geopolitical tensions. The transaction costs of coming to an agreement at the United Nations (UN) are going up; additionally, states more often seek solutions outside of the multilateral system in smaller, more informal formats.publishedVersio
Introduction to the Special Issue on Under Communism’s Shadow The Memory of the Violent Past in Present-Day Russia
Full text linkPerhaps no topic could be more crucial to the concept of “post-communism” than how the Soviet past is commemorated, challenged, or forgotten. The study of historical memory is often correctly tied to identity politics and nation-building. While the usable past framework is broadly applicable to all modern states, in the Russian case a degree of alarmism and negativity surrounds interpretations of how the country has managed its communist past, particularly its violent parts. A significant element to this is a teleological view of progress and the salience of the transition paradigm. In memory studies, this is manifested in the dominance of the cosmopolitan memory mode as the correct way the violent past should be commemorated. The introduction reviews the existing literature on Russia’s memory politics and highlights three limitations: (1) overemphasis on the political center and the failure to capture the diversity of regions, (2) too much focus on the supply side of memory politics, and (3) one-sided presentations of the role the Great Patriotic War plays in Russian memory politics. The introduction reviews how the special issue contributions address these limitations in the literature and shows how, taken together, they offer ideas for new research on memory studies. A case is made for how this new research agenda can better understand memory processes and how they relate to broader ideological, cultural, social, and political change in Russia.Introduction to the Special Issue on Under Communism’s Shadow The Memory of the Violent Past in Present-Day RussiapublishedVersio
Differentiating Hybrid Threats against the High North and Baltic Sea regions
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The Political Economy of Global Climate Action: Where Does the West Go Next After COP28?
Full text linkThis is an independent report commissioned by the Oslo Energy Forum (OEF). The authors would like
to thank Reidar Gjærum and Sven Mollekleiv at the OEF for excellent comments on earlier drafts, and
in particular Ulf Sverdrup for getting the project started and for discussions of the issues covered by
this report throughout the duration of the project.This report offers a critical, candid examination of the landscape of global climate action. Current efforts are lacking even amid consecutive UN climate conferences that build upon the successes of the 2015 Paris Agreement. It argues that the incremental progress achieved thus far is insufficient to address the escalating climate crisis. Challenges of domestic political economy and lacking global governance are substantively at fault. We identify several related barriers to effective climate action, including mismatched time horizons, shared public and private responsibility, the complexity of global challenges, and problems of global collective action and burden distribution. The report explores the distributional costs of climate policies, emphasizing the impacts of populism on climate action (and vice versa), and the need for a fair transition. Global governance challenges are attributable to the limits of existing multilateral institutions and the persistently difficult geopolitical and macroeconomic outlook. We conclude by offering a set of specific policy recommendations, spanning corporate taxation, public investment, long-term commitment mechanisms, the climate action-energy security interface, corporate responsibility, and the imperative of a just, equitable, and participatory transition. The proposed strategies can contribute to achieving time-consistent, decisive and systemic action that tackles the urgent climate crisis, building on political incentives and disincentives. This systematic lens – focused on political economy and global governance constraints - needs to be applied to all climate action policies to get ahead of the curve in the global and domestic political environment in which we find ourselves.The Political Economy of Global Climate Action: Where Does the West Go Next After COP28?publishedVersio
