Institutional Innovation in the Management of Pro-Poor Energy Access in East Africa

Lorenz Gollwitzer (), David Ockwell () and Adrian Ely ()
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Lorenz Gollwitzer: SPRU (Science Policy Research Unit), School of Business Management and Economics, University of Sussex, UK
David Ockwell: Department of Geography, ESRC STEPS Centre, Sussex Energy Group and Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, School of Global Studies, University of Sussex, UK
Adrian Ely: SPRU (Science Policy Research Unit), ESRC STEPS Centre, School of Business Management and Economics, University of Sussex, UK

SPRU Working Paper Series from SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School

Abstract: This paper articulates a new theoretical perspective on the management of rural mini-grids for facilitating pro-poor electricity access in developing countries. Bridging the literature on common pool resource (CPR) management/collective action (including its application to irrigation systems) with the hydraulic analogy for explaining the behaviour of electricity in closed electrical circuits, a refined theoretical framework is produced for analysing the socio-cultural institutional conditions for sustainable management of rural mini-grids. The utility of the framework is demonstrated via empirical analysis of mini-grids in rural Kenya. This yields insights on socio-cultural approaches to addressing challenges relating to sustainable mini-grid management, e.g. seasonality of demand and fair allocation of limited amounts of electricity to different consumers, in ways that are acceptable to, and to some extent also enforced by the entire group of diverse resource users. The paper contributes to both the literatures on sustainable CPR management/collective action and the literature on pro-poor sustainable energy access in developing countries, providing a novel theoretical and empirical contribution to the emerging socio-cultural turn in the latter.

Keywords: innovation studies; science policy; research challenges; dark innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-ene
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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