Energy Discourses in Europe - Legitimation of EU Energy Efficiency Policy

Niina Erkama, Sampo Tukiainen

2014

Abstract

The production and use of energy is an important factor in European politics and science. However, we know little about the discussions that influence how scarce financial resources of governments and organizations are directed to different projects and action related to energy strategy of EU. Therefore, this paper studies the discourses that underlie the ‘energy talk’ of EU decision makers. This is important because discourses are resources that are employed to legitimate governmental and organizational aims and decision, such as new energy saving projects and policies. This paper is based on discourse theory that acknowledges that discourses change understanding of social situations, which also makes discursive activity a form of political activity (Hardy and Phillips, 1999). However, there are multiple and contradictory meanings and realities existing in an organization, or in any discursive space (Hardy, 2001) and discursive actors are commonly embedded in multiple discourses (Hardy and Phillips, 2004). The study will be based on interviews with EU Members of the Parliament. The results are likely to reveal local and EU-level discourses that influence establishing of new energy policies and projects on EU-level and this way affect organizations and business in Europe.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Erkama N. and Tukiainen S. (2014). Energy Discourses in Europe - Legitimation of EU Energy Efficiency Policy . In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Smart Grids and Green IT Systems - Volume 1: IEEHSC, (SMARTGREENS 2014) ISBN 978-989-758-025-3, pages 350-354. DOI: 10.5220/0004981603500354

in Bibtex Style

@conference{ieehsc14,
author={Niina Erkama and Sampo Tukiainen},
title={Energy Discourses in Europe - Legitimation of EU Energy Efficiency Policy},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Smart Grids and Green IT Systems - Volume 1: IEEHSC, (SMARTGREENS 2014)},
year={2014},
pages={350-354},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0004981603500354},
isbn={978-989-758-025-3},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Smart Grids and Green IT Systems - Volume 1: IEEHSC, (SMARTGREENS 2014)
TI - Energy Discourses in Europe - Legitimation of EU Energy Efficiency Policy
SN - 978-989-758-025-3
AU - Erkama N.
AU - Tukiainen S.
PY - 2014
SP - 350
EP - 354
DO - 10.5220/0004981603500354