Toward a state-led, market-enabled commons: Positioning urban civic energy in East Asia
- Urban Affairs Review
- 60(4), Jul, 2024: p.1272-1287
Empirical studies on energy democracy (ED) tend to presume boundaries among community energy (CE) practices, corporate operations, and state leadership. This research note identifies three features underlying existing literature: an implicit binary thinking of state and society, the understated market influence, and a lack of urban features that enable ED functioning through spatial means. I therefore propose urban commons (UC) as a complementary framework to interrogate the interplay among the state, society, and market operations in CE research and practices. I examine how ED informs CE operations in Japan, Taiwan, and Korea, identifying a set of limitations to which UC can respond. Some latest thinking on UC and a body of strategies proposed by key interlocutors were discussed. I then propose “state-led, market-enabled commons” as a conceptual framework to account for urban civic energy initiatives in East Asia.- Reproduced