The divergent diffusion of district energy systems in France and Alberta: state politics and the socio-material and socio-spatial construction of low-carbon transitions
Bibliographic record
Abstract
How do different state structures and urban and energy socio-material contexts explain the uneven diffusion of district energy systems (DES) in urban areas of France and Alberta between 2000 and 2014? To answer this question, this thesis analyses the processes inherent to low-carbon energy transitions through socio-spatial and socio-material lenses, considering power relations and state structure. At the intersection of urban planning and energy systems, DES proves practical to explore the nexus between low-carbon governance, energy governance, and urban governance. Theoretical frameworks employed in the analysis include 1) recent contributions from (urban) transition studies and socio-technical systems; 2) a Lefebvrian conceptualisation of socio-space and social changes; and 3) Jessop’s (1990, 2008) strategic-relational approach of state power. An original inter-scale comparative research allows for examining the uneven construction of low-carbon energy policies in France and Alberta, and their relations with state structures, and existing urban and energy systems. Jessop et al.’s Territory-Place-Scale-Network (TPSN) framework is mobilised to overcome the issues of commensurability and spontaneous comparison. These theoretical and methodological approaches provide a robust demonstration that the provincial scale in Canada, and the national scale in France, are the scales dominating the construction of low-carbon energy transitions and urban governance. Despite similar state powers, French and Albertan governments developed different state policies on low-carbon transition, highlighting selectivity in the exercise of state capacities. They differently engaged and enabled local urban governments and developed different state interventions on DES. In France, state-sponsored DES activated new channels of growth compatible with existing dominant socio-materialities; in Alberta, state-funded DES experiments failed to activate new channels of growth compatible with dominant socio-materialities. This thesis posits that selective construction of low-carbon policies depends on the material interests of dominant energy and state actors. In other words, the state does not seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by all means. Rather, it seeks to reproduce dominant socio-material status quo, adapting low-carbon policies to existing socio-material configuration. Ultimately, this thesis validates how the concepts of state structure and the TPSN framework can enrich the theorisation of space and power relations for (urban) transition studies.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.003 | 0.004 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.004 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".