Magdalena Kuchler    PhD

Fractures in the EU energy future: at the crossroad between security, transition and governance

The project addresses the current European shale gas debate and policy development that epitomise some of the fundamental questions regarding the future of EU´s energy security, sustainable energy transition and regional energy governance (i.e. Energy Union).

The aim is to critically analyse socio-technical imaginaries and discursive/material representations of shale gas as a political resource, as well as interrogate specific geopolitical rationalities and practices generated in the European shale gas debate and policy development. The ambition is to juxtapose the supranational EU level (e.g. European Commission) with national cases of Poland and the United Kingdom, two  EU member states that have potential shale gas resources but different objectives and regulations regarding energy and environment. The project draws upon three analytical perspectives: 1) socio-technical imaginaries, 2) discourse & materiality, 3) rationalities (world-making) and technologies (geo-metrics) of governance. Methods include frame/discourse analysis of relevant documents, social-network analysis and semi-structured in-depth interviews. The significance of the project lies in providing systematic and in-depth comparative analyses of the shale gas policy debate that will assist decision-makers, energy industry representatives and public stakeholders in assessing policy implications of security, transition and governance claims forwarded in the debate and increasingly implemented in the EU policy.

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