Power Struggles

Jaume Franquesa Bartolome

Description

Wind energy is often portrayed as a panacea for the environmental and political ills brought on by an overreliance on fossil fuels, but this characterization may ignore the impact wind farms have on the regions that host them. Power Struggles investigates the uneven allocation of risks and benefits in the relationship between the regions that produce this energy and those that consume it.

Jaume Franquesa considers Spain, a country where wind now constitutes the main source of energy production. In particular, he looks at the Southern Catalonia region, which has traditionally been a source of energy production through nuclear reactors, dams, oil refineries, and gas and electrical lines. Despite providing energy that runs the country, the region is still forced to the political and economic periphery as the power they produce is controlled by centralized, international Spanish corporations. Local resistance to wind farm installation in Southern Catalonia relies on the notion of dignity: the ability to live within one's means and according to one's own decisions. Power Struggles shows how, without careful attention, renewable energy production can reinforce patterns of exploitation even as it promises a fair and hopeful future.

Acknowledgements
Where the World Ends
1. Dependence and Autonomy
2. Nuclear Transaction
3. Nuclear Peasants
4. Southern Revolt
5. Wind Bubble
6. Accessing Wind
7. Waste and Dignity
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Environmental Policy
• Public Policy
• Social Science
• HISTORY
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Spanish Civil War
• General officer
• Spain
• History of Europe
• Catalonia
• Anthropology
• Spain (groupe)
• General
• Social
• Culture
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 23 avril 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253033765
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 6 Mo

Extrait

POWER STRUGGLES

NEW ANTHROPOLO GIES OF EUROPE Michael Herzfeld, Melissa L. Caldwell, and Deborah Reed-Danahay,Editors

POWER STRUGGLES Dignity, Value, and the Renewable Energy Frontier in Spain

JauME FranquEsa

Indiana UnivErsity PrEss

This book is a publication of Indiana University Press Office of Scholarly Publishing Herman B Wells Library 350 1320 East 10th Street Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA

iupress.indiana.edu

© 2018 by Jaume Franquesa All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.

Manufactured in the United States of America

Cataloging information is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN 978-0-253-03373-4 (cloth) ISBN 978-0-253-03372-7 (paperback) ISBN 978-0-253-03376-5 (ebook)

1 2 3 4 523 22 21 20 19 18

Per na Marion.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction: Where the World Ends Dependence and Autonomy Nuclear Transaction Nuclear Peasants Southern Revolt Wind Bubble Accessing Wind Waste and Dignity Bibliography Index

Illustrations follow page 100.

Acknowledgments

T HIS BOOK WOULD not have become a reality without the help of many people, and I am grateful to all of them. But rst things rst, for only the hospitality of the citizens from Southern Catalonia, and especially of those from Fatarella (una dura terra que estimo, as the poet wrote), made my research possible. Unfortunately, I cannot name them all. My special thanks go to Joan de Marta and Sisco de Permarch, with their families andcollaDolors, Ramon, Natàlia, Andreu, Maria, Vinyes, (Encarna, Miquel Àngel, etc.), Joan de l’Àngela and his family, Josep i Núria de Sagalo, Gemma i Josep de Pastoret, Rosa Ruiz, Pol and Mercè, Marta and Gatano de Gironès, Messe Cabús, Sisco de Belart, Ruth and Marco, Josep Maria and Rosa, Ramona i Ramon de Segura, Cinta and Sisco de Carlets, Andreu, Hèctor, Raül, and last, but not least, Montse, Rosa, and Carme, the three wonderful teachers of the guarde. Local institutional support was also key. During my eldwork, Fatarella had three different mayors (Carme, Fermín, and Jesús) from three different political parties: all of them supported my research and allowed me access to the municipal archives; former mayors Blanch, Basco, and Suñé also provided help and insight. Several mayors and former mayors from other Southern Catalan towns shared their perspectives with me, including the Mesa d’Alcaldes per al Desenvolupament de l’Energia. I also beneted from the experience and wisdom of the Southern Platforms, especially those of Priorat and Terra Alta; the help offered by Roser Vernet, Jordi Clua, and Txus Carbó deserve special mention. Above all, the people of Fundació el Solà, with Neus Borrell and Josep Maria Font at the fore, provided an invaluable intellectual atmosphere: their work is a model, and although they may not know it, they gave me the idea for this book. I also appreciate the willingness of several members of EolicCat (the Catalan association of wind energy producers) and other people in the wind energy sector to meet with me on repeated occasions and share their point of view; my admiration goes to those who believe in building adifferenttomorrow. A Hunt Fellowship from the Wenner Gren Foundation (Gr. 8732) provided crucial financial support and a good deal of emotional relief for the writing of this book. My own institution, the University at Buffalo–SUNY has provided important support at different phases of this project, fundamentally through two research grants from the Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy, the Julian Park Publication Fund and a fellowship from the Humanities Institute that permitted me to complete the manuscript. I also want to thank the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, where I enjoyed a short visiting Fellowship in 2010. Between 2012 and 2015 I was involved in the research project “Addressing the Multiple Aspects of Sustainability,” based in the Universitat de Barcelona and directed by Susana Narotzky, who, as always, has provided crucial support and guidance for this book. I cannot express how fortunate I was for receiving the week-long visit of Gavin Smith while I was on the eld; from him I have learnt how to be a better researcher, a better thinker, and a better person; many of the ideas in this manuscript have their origin in conversations that we started in Fatarella and continued in Toronto, where he and Winnie Lem have provided an academic home away from home. Marc Morell and Jaime Palomera also visited me in the eld: we had a blast, mixing friendship and ideas. Several Southern Catalan academics and intellectuals—Xavier Garcia, Josep Sánchez Cervelló, Jordi Ferrús, Joan Asens, Sergi Saladié, and Joan Rebull—greatly helped me rene my thoughts and perspective while on the field. Several people read dras of parts of the manuscript, always giving me useful feedback: the late Susan Christopherson, Blanca Garcés, Vasiliki Neofotistos, Susana Narotzky, Pablo Sánchez León, Gavin Smith, Marion Werner, and Saulesh Yessenova. Drew Gilbert, Irene Ketonen, Tania Li, Deborah Reed-Danahay, Beatriz Santamarina, and Tom Wilson gave me the opportunity to present my work in front of small and larger audiences. Many other scholars contributed their insights, probably unknowingly, through formal and informal discussion: Ayse Caglar, Sandra Ezquerra, Bilge Firat, Víctor Giménez, Kregg Hetherington, Don Kalb, Aaron Kappeler, Joan Martínez Alier, Carlotta McAllister, Patrick Neveling, Don Nonini, Florin Poenaru, Scott Prudham, Katharine Rankin,

8 !  lle mOand Sandy Smith-Nonini. My colleagues and graduate students at the University at Sanz, Buffalo also have my gratitude for providing a collegial atmosphere. Enze Zhang helped me with the maps, Letta Page with editing, and Ariel Noe with the bibliography. I am also grateful to Indiana University Press for believing in this project. is book has proven to be a more challenging task than I had anticipated when I began working on it in 2010. It all happened at once: getting used to a new academic context and a new country, writing in a foreign language, learning to be a parent, engaging with a new eld site, and a new set of theoretical questions. e list could go on, and on many occasions, I thought I had overextended myself. Sometimes acedia ensued, and all too oen I was too distant from those whom I love. I shall thus extend my deepest gratitude to them for coping with me: my friends in Igualada, Barcelona, Palma, Toronto, Buffalo, and elsewhere; my parents Dolors and Jaume, my siblings Oriol and Marcel·la (and her beautiful family), and my grandparents, Josena and Jaume; my Canadian family, Beatrice and Daniel, for giving me the time, the trust, and the space. Yet if there is one person to whom I owe it all, it is Marion Werner: for her love, her courage, her intelligence, her sense of purpose, and, not least, for her intellectual stimulus and her help with the manuscript. And nally, to our children, Yannick and Biel, a constant source of happiness:perquè voldreu.

POWER STRUGGLES