XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 15-21, 2018)

1037

Global Risk and Energy Democracy

If we would like to reconstruct ecologically sustainable and socially just society worldwide, we should tackle the issue of energy transition on the basis of energy democracy to ecological paradigm of diversified, diffusive and participatory energy system. Energy Democracy is the politics in which citizens can participate and communicate for equitable and sustainable energy system at the local, national, and global level. Energy transition is national, regional, and global issues. Methodological cosmopolitanism suggests an approach of seeking a common governance model with different local characteristics.
The most prominent trend lies in the fact that after the Fukushima disaster, energy transition on the basis of energy democracy can be found in Europe and East Asia. In East Asian countries such as Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, the resurgence of anti-nuclear campaign, the energy saving movement and the advocacy movement of renewable energy were proliferated after the Fukushima disaster. More importantly, civil society and the combination of civil forces which promote energy transition from the bottom up have gained the ability to produce systematic socially robust knowledge. We are organizing this session in order to analyze “how civil societies, nation states and big businesses can cooperate or conflict facing global risk such as nuclear accidents and climate change in the national and global level”. Specifically we are focusing on people’s awareness of transboundary or global risk, and the reaction to the risk. Energy issue is not only a technical, economical issue but social, ecological issue which should be tackled in terms of democracy.