Masterminds of a realizable energy transition? Think Tanks Strategies of Epistemic Influencing as Field Activities

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Robert Jungmann
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 541180480

Today, think tanks play a central role in shaping transformations and socio-technical visions of the future. Energy transition research provides an instructive example of this. Although the notion of the need for a transition was itself generated by a think tank in the 1980s, energy transition research and the media today highlight an even increased significance. The problem with previous research on think tanks and the energy transition field is that it remains unclear what enables the think tank organization type to assume these central positions in the social negotiation of this transformation. There is a lack of systematic comparative studies of their internal procedures as well as the consideration of think tanks as a special type of field actors, i.e. the investigation of their embedding in networks of other actors. The question of the project is therefore: Which strategies, practices and structures as well as external relations enable think tanks today to influence the future direction of the Energiewende and where are the limits of these possibilities of influence? In order to shed light on the specifics of the think tank organization type and its field positioning, a comparative case study design (most-different-cases) of five differently oriented think tanks (from proponents of an accelerated turnaround to critics of the need for a turnaround) as well as a systematic comparison with associations will be pursued. Think tank specifics are collected primarily through interviews, document analysis, and standardized network analysis, as well as comparatively classified over time. The central question is whether similar patterns in strategies, practices, structures and external relations can be identified that allow to influence the ideas of a feasible energy transition. The project theoretically combines the approach of "epistemic governance" with practice-theoretical organizational research according to Giddens. It initially focuses on think tanks' interpretation of three events: the gas shortage associated with the Ukraine war, the German Constitutional Court ruling on the Climate Protection Act of March 24, 2021, and the decarbonization strategy associated with the European Green Deal. The aim of the project is to systematically and comparatively investigate the significance and role of the think tank organization type for the transformation dynamics of the energy transition for the first time. The expected results are relevant for three debates: The debate on think tanks in organizational sociology (1), the interdisciplinary debate on actor constellations in the negotiation of energy transition pathways (2), and the ebate on contested expertise, a scientification of politics, and distributed responsibilities in contemporary transformations in social theory (3).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Netherlands
• Cooperation Partner: Dr. Nadine Arnold