Tensions Between Local Embeddedness and Scaling up: Insights from Grassroots Sustainability Initiatives in the Renewable Energy Transition

Lea Baileche, Magalie Marais (m.marais@montpellier-bs.com) and Florence Palpacuer
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Lea Baileche: UM - Université de Montpellier, MRM - Montpellier Research in Management - UPVD - Université de Perpignan Via Domitia - UM - Université de Montpellier
Magalie Marais: MBS - Montpellier Business School, Groupe Sup de Co Montpellier (GSCM) - Montpellier Business School
Florence Palpacuer: UM - Université de Montpellier, MRM - Montpellier Research in Management - UPVD - Université de Perpignan Via Domitia - UM - Université de Montpellier

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Abstract: Although grassroots initiatives in the renewable energy transition are flourishing, their embeddedness in local contexts challenges their capacity to spread their impact on a broader scale. Certainly, while scaling up has been described as difficult to combine with local embeddedness, little is known on the specific nature of the tensions involved in combining the two. Studying a federation of citizen renewable energy (RE) cooperatives in the south of France, we show that the engagement in a scaling-up process at a regional level generates three main kinds of tensions associated with specific dimensions of local embeddedness: natural, cultural, and political. We emphasize how these dimensions are likely to be threatened when the federation engages the cooperatives in a rapid scaling-up dynamic in which the drive to industrialize projects and find funding is dominant. We acknowledge the effects of these tensions on grassroots sustainability initiatives and collective organizing processes.

Date: 2024-04-09
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Published in Organization and Environment, 2024, ⟨10.1177/10860266241238730⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04683533

DOI: 10.1177/10860266241238730

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