Send message to Contributor

Contribution short abstract

This thesis explores energy poverty governance in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, through a feminist political ecology and commoning perspective. It argues that intersectional and commoning approaches hold the potential to move towards socio-ecologically just energy futures.

Contribution long abstract

Energy poverty has gained increasing attention across research and practice over the past decade but remains a persistent issue in countries of the global North. It is often addressed in depoliticised, individualised ways, which obscure the structural inequalities that underpin it. While numerous scholars have highlighted the power asymmetries embedded in energy systems and their transitions toward low-carbon futures, limited attention has been paid to the governance of energy poverty from a critical, intersectional perspective. This thesis aims to fill this gap by analysing at the governance of energy poverty in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, from a feminist political ecology and commoning perspective. The objectives of this research practice are twofold. First, I reveal how energy poverty is dominantly governed through the operation of gendered, classed and racialised relations of power that emerge in logics, infrastructural and institutional configurations and access to governance measures addressing energy poverty. I highlight the lived experiences of energy poverty unfolding under dominant governance arrangements. Second, I shed light on how activists of the campaign RWE & CO. enteignen approach energy poverty through commoning practices. I argue that commoning approaches to energy poverty hold the potential to move towards more socio-ecologically just energy futures. The research at hand shows that energy poverty governance must be politicised and energy poverty addressed collectively to avoid the reproduction of the very inequalities that governance measures ought to address.