Thesis supervisor
: Olivier Coutard, Byron Miller (University of Calgary) (http://geog.ucalgary.ca/profiles/byron-miller)
How do different state structures and urban and energy socio-material contexts explain the uneven
diffusion of district energy systems (DES) in urban areas of France and Alberta between 2000 and 2014?
To answer this question, this thesis analyzes the processes inherent to low-carbon energy transitions
through socio-spatial and socio-material lenses, considering power relations and state structure. At the
intersection of urban planning and energy systems, DES proves practical for exploring the nexus between
low-carbon governance, energy governance, and urban governance. Theoretical frameworks employed in
the analysis include 1) recent contributions from (urban) transition studies and socio-technical systems; 2)
a Lefebvrian conceptualization of socio-space and social changes; and 3) Jessop's (1990, 2008) strategic-relational
approach to state power. An original inter-scale comparative research allows for examining the
uneven construction of low-carbon energy policies in France and Alberta, and their relations with state
structures, and existing urban and energy systems. Jessop et al.’s Territory-Place-Scale-Network (TPSN)
framework is mobilised to overcome the issues of commensurability and spontaneous comparison. These
theoretical and methodological approaches provide a robust demonstration that the provincial scale in
Canada and the national scale in France are the scales dominating the construction of low-carbon energy
transitions and urban governance. Despite similar state powers, French and Albertan governments
developed different state policies on low-carbon transition, highlighting selectivity in the exercise of state
capacities. They differently engaged and enabled local urban governments and developed different state
interventions on DES. In France, state-sponsored DES activated new channels of growth compatible with
existing dominant socio-materialities; in Alberta, state-funded DES experiments failed to activate new
channels of growth compatible with dominant socio-materialities. This thesis posits that selective
construction of low-carbon policies depends on the material interests of dominant energy and state actors.
In other words, the state does not seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by all means. Rather, it seeks
to reproduce dominant socio-material status quo, adapting low-carbon policies to existing socio-material
configuration. Ultimately, this thesis validates how the concepts of state structure and the TPSN
framework can enrich the theorisation of space and power relations for (urban) transition studies.
Thesis defense on Wednesday, November 21, 2018
Year of enrollment
: 2014
Doctoral school
: VTT – City, Transportation, and Territory
Composition of the
jury
Julia Affolderbach, Senior Lecturer, University of Hull, United Kingdom, rapporteur
Sophie Van Neste, Professor, National Institute for Scientific Research (INRS), Montreal, Canada, rapporteur
Olivier Coutard, Director of Research CNRS, LATTS, University of Paris-Est, co-director
Noel Keough, Professor, University of Calgary, examiner
Byron Miller, Professor, University of Calgary, Canada, co-director
Jonathan Rutherford, Research Fellow ENPC, LATTS, University of Paris-Est, examiner.