Econ Papers Daily / 期刊论文
地缘政治约束下欧盟可再生能源社区政策的转化：塞浦路斯的行动者网络分析
Translating EU renewable energy community policy under geopolitical constraint: An actor-network analysis of Cyprus
摘要
We use an actor-network concept of translation to examine how EU Renewable Energy Community (REC) policy translates into domestic practice under contested sovereignty, infrastructural isolation, and active geopolitical obstruction. Cyprus is a critical, theory-building case: the EU's last fully isolated grid, occupation of part of its territory by a third state, and Turkish obstruction of both gas exploitation and electricity interconnection make the assumptions embedded in EU policy unusually visible. Drawing on policy documents, twelve interviews and participant observation, we trace how the framework fragments as it moves from supranational design to local implementation. The evidence supports two case-derived hypotheses. The first, presupposition-mismatched translation, holds that compliance fails not for want of will or capacity but because the policy as written presupposes a context that does not exist locally, so translation fragments into competing local interpretations. The second, symmetric foreclosure, holds that where one external mechanism blocks both the domestically prioritised energy-security pathway (gas) and the EU-aligned pathway (interconnected renewable generation), competing local obligatory passage points cancel rather than converge. Their joint product is structural decoupling under material constraint, extending Bromley and Powell's means–ends decoupling to cases where the formal-substantive gap is produced by foreclosure of the prescribed means rather than by organizational choice. The argument is not that RECs cannot exist in Cyprus, but that this decarbonisation initiative receives weak domestic backing for geopolitical rather than technical reasons. We draw implications for green-transition initiatives in other peripheral, geopolitically exposed member states and for differentiated EU implementation guidance.
中文摘要
我们采用行动者网络理论中的转译概念，考察欧盟可再生能源共同体（REC）政策在主权争议、基础设施孤立和地缘政治主动阻挠的背景下如何转译为国内实践。塞浦路斯是一个具有关键意义的理论建构案例：其电网是欧盟最后一个完全孤立的电网，部分领土被第三国占领，土耳其既阻挠天然气开采也阻挠电力互联，这使得欧盟政策中嵌入的假设异常显见。基于政策文件、十二次访谈和参与式观察，我们追踪该框架如何从超国家设计向地方实施移动时发生碎片化。证据支持两个由案例衍生的假设。第一个是预设错配式转译，即合规失败并非因为缺乏意愿或能力，而是因为政策文本预设了一个当地并不存在的语境，致使转译碎片化为相互竞争的地方解释。第二个是对称性 foreclosure，即在某一外部机制同时阻断国内优先的能源安全路径（天然气）和与欧盟一致的路径（互联的可再生能源发电）的情况下，相互竞争的地方 obligatory passage points 相互抵消而非趋同。二者的共同产物是物质约束下的结构性脱耦，这将 Bromley 和 Powell 的手段—目的脱耦扩展到如下情形：正式—实质差距是由规定手段被 foreclosure 所产生，而非由组织选择所产生。本文的论点并非 REC 在塞浦路斯不可能存在，而是这一脱碳倡议获得薄弱的国内支持，其原因在于地缘政治而非技术。我们为其他边缘性、地缘政治暴露的成员国中的绿色转型倡议以及差异化的欧盟实施指导提炼了启示。