Multi-sphere Policy Development German Renewable Energy Policy

I will perform an in-dept, historical case study of how German renewable energy policy has developed over time and visit Environmental Policy Research Centre (FFU) at the Freie Universität Berlin for one month. European¬ization and accelerating speciali zation and professionalization of industries and governmental apparatuses have rendered national policy processes in Europe more complex and harder to capture analytically. There is also deep disagreement among political scientists as to what extent and h ow industry, civil society groups and governmental organizations influence national policy outcomes. The enduring conflicts between network theorists and pluralists on the one hand and segmentation and corporatist scholars on the other have been counterpr oductive, obstructing identification of the conditions under which various groups in society are influential, and when they remain largely irrelevant. We lack good conceptualizations and theories to guide the assessment of national policy development. Th e MSP project steps up to the challenge. In this project I will apply, and aim to improve, the Multi-sphere Policy Development framework (see Boasson 2011). The project has one specific empirical component: systematic comparison of renewable energy policy development in four European countries, Germany, UK, Norway and Sweden. The research stay in Germany has a threefold objective: 1) Get in touch with German renewable energy specialists, and particular political scientist with this competence, 2) Perform interviews with key German renewable energy actors, within the electricity industry, renewable energy industry and the environmental movement. 3) Present the MSP-project at German political science institutions, aiming for dialogue and inputs to the frame work.