SUPERVISOR: Christoph GÖRG 

PROJECT ASSIGNED TO: Carmen SÉRA-PENKER

Adopted in 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include 17 goals that are calling all member states of the United Nations to action. Only in a global partnership of developing and developed countries the targets of the SDGs can be achieved (UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2020). The development of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was an important step, particularly for international climate politics by recognising the connection between development and climate change (Chong 2018: 43). Serving these objectives, knowledge and financial resources will have to be heavily mobilised in order to support the achievement of the SDGs (Mohieldin 2019: xxix).

The doctoral project looks into the sustainable energy transition in the Caribbean region, focussing on politics and institutions supporting this policy field (CARICOM 2013; CCREEE 2023a, CCREEE 2023b). Drawing on empirical work, the doctoral project aims to gain a profound understanding of the regional South-South cooperation and the implementation process of the sustainable energy agenda.

The theoretical framework that guides the research builds upon three approaches which include an international political economy and critical state theory perspective (Bieling 2011; Brand, Wissen 2011: 19-20; Wullweber, Graf, Behrens 2013), a post-colonial approach (McLeod 2007; Young 2016; Barthel 2019) as well as an understanding of South-South cooperation as alternative development (Muhr 2016; Gosovic 2016). Applying a post-colonial approach will help to investigate the question of knowledge exchange and technology transfer within the political field of renewable energy and energy efficiency. Defining South-South cooperation as alternative development will enable the project to look deeply into the possibilities of networking and policy-making and also look into power relations of the partnerships. Using an international political economy approach and a critical state theory perspective will facilitate the analysis of the political system and institutions and the understanding of political structures.

Planned methods to gather and analyse data include literature research which will be analysed using a qualitative content analysis approach guided by Mayring (2015). Furthermore, the method used to collect empirical data will be qualitative interviews with stakeholders and other actors to answer the research questions. Depending on the counterpart, these will be open interviews, guided interviews or expert interviews (Dannecker, Vossemer 2014: 155-161). The transcribed interviews will then be analysed using a qualitative content analysis method for interview data (Kuckartz 2016).

This doctoral project has been awarded a DOC fellowship by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW).

References:

Barthel, Bettina (2019): Erneuerbare und dezentrale Energien aus postkolonialer Perspektive. Ethnographische Analysen deutsch-tansanischer Partnerschaften. Band 20, Reihe „Entwicklungstheorie und Entwicklungspolitik“. Baden-Baden: Nomos.

Bieling, Hans-Jürgen (2011): Internationale Politische Ökonomie. Eine Einführung. 2., aktualisierte Auflage. Lehrbuch, Studienbücher Außenpolitik und Internationale Beziehungen. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Springer Fachmedien.

Brand, Ulrich; Wissen, Markus (2011): Die Regulation der ökologischen Krise. Theorie und Empirie der Transformation gesellschaftlicher Naturverhältnisse. In: Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie, Vol. 36, 12-34.

CARICOM (2013): CARICOM Energy Policy. caricom.org/documents/10862-caricom_energy_policy.pdf [Access: 24.1.2023].

Chong, Daniel (2018): The Sustainable Development Goals and Climate Change. In: Social Alternatives, Vol. 37, No. 1, 43-48.

CCREEE (2023a): About us. History of The CCREEE. https://www.ccreee.org/ [Access: 23.1.2023].

CCREEE (2023b): CEKH. CARICOM Energy Knowledge Hub. https://www.ccreee.org/cekh/ [Access: 23.1.2023].

Dannecker, Petra; Vossemer, Christiane (2014): Qualitative Interviews in der Entwicklungsforschung. Typen und Herausforderungen. In: Dannecker, Petra; Englert, Birgit (Ed.) (2014): Qualitative Methoden in der Entwicklungsforschung. Wien: Mandelbaum Verlag, 153-175.

Gosovic, Branislav (2016): The resurgence of South–South cooperation. In: Third World Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 4, 733-743.

Kuckartz, Udo (2016): Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Methoden, Praxis, Computerunterstützung. Grundlagentexte Methoden. 3. Auflage. Weinheim, Basel: Beltz Juventa.

Mayring, Philipp (2015): Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Grundlagen und Techniken. 12., überarbeitete Auflage. Weinheim, Basel: Beltz Verlag.

McLeod, John (2007): Introduction. In: McLeod, John (Ed.) (2007): The Routledge Companion to Postcolonial Studies. London, New York: Routledge, 1-18.

Mohieldin, Mahmoud (2019): Foreword. In: Walker, Julia; Pekmezovic, Alma; Walker, Gordon (Ed.) (2019): Sustainable Development Goals. Harnessing Business to Achieve the SDGs through Finance, Technology, and Law Reform.  Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, xxix-xxx.

Muhr, Thomas (2016): Beyond ‘BRICS’: ten theses on South–South cooperation in the twenty-first century. In: Third World Quarterly, Vol. 37, Np. 4, 630-648.

UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2020): Sustainable Development Goals. sustainabledevelopment.un.org [Access: 24.1.2023].

Wullweber, Joscha; Graf, Antonia; Behrens, Maria (Ed.) (2013): Theorien der Internationalen Politischen Ökonomie. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

Young, Robert J.C. (2016): Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction. Anniversary Edition. Chichester: John Wiley & sons, ltd.