Social economy, the state, and alternative energy: The privatization of energy work through environmentalism

For "Western" countries, the state has traditionally been the major developer, provider, and regulator of energy.  This is a result of both economic reality (the high costs of the production of power such as hydro as well as the construction of an energy grid) and political imperative (as affordable energy is central to both a comfortable standard of living as well as business development).  Part of the unwritten bargain of state development in energy (and elsewhere) has also been that the jobs created in the process would be well paying, long-term, and usually unionized work.  The energy sector then was important was part of the post-war compromise.

Fast forward to 2012 and we find states in serious retreat as providers of services as well as employers, with only the iconic or strategic sectors of its economic activity still in its hands.  Into this context, we can locate the increasingly popular conception of the Social Economy as one that allows dismantling of various state programs through the promise (and sometimes reality) of community control. 

This paper will in its first section examine the strong Social Economy alternative energy sectors in four countries - Canada, the UK, Denmark and Germany - to compare and contrast the policy tools used to "privatize" the energy sector and which of these actually achieve some degree of community control.  In its second section, the paper will examine the promise of the Social Economy to preserve the quality and location of energy sector jobs, and the reasons behind the failure of the Social Economy and the state to realize this promise in their practice.  In conclusion, the paper argues that it is important for any "privatization" of a state economic activity to "lock" good jobs into the community.