Salvaging Death Worlds : Drivers and Barriers to the Adoption of Biogas and Biofertilizer Production Systems on Gotland

Abstract: Utilizing an interdisciplinary, multi-level perspective analysis this thesis reviews niche- regime-landscape interactions (analogous to the clusters of actors working at the local level of Gotland representing niche; the regime being national governance goals; and the landscape incorporating global level affairs and institutions such as the European Union (EU)) and their (mis)alignments within the biogas/biofertilizer production system of Gotland, Sweden, a small-island case study for energy-food-transportation transition and sustainable destination development. The study analyzes the heterarchical and polycentric development of biogas on Gotland—a socio-technical niche, nested within a larger energy regime and global landscape for transition—developing an understanding of (mis)alignments of pressures interacting on, at, and between the niche-regime- landscape as they combine with the peculiar competencies, as Loorbach describes, “creative minds, strategists, and visionaries” of a cluster of actors working in the food- energy-transport nexus on the island (2010, p. 6). These peculiar competencies, defined in section two, incorporate, and explore trust, storytelling, crisis, agency, cognitive features, influence, orchestration, social learning, perception, emotion, and expectation dynamics, operating within a strategic niche management context meeting goals for the region, as well as national and international goals set by actors such as the EU and Swedish national government. This is further problematized by landscape-level pressures due to crisis. The purpose is to investigate how clusters of actors with different competencies— connected to the socio-technical niche-level of biogas and biofertilizer production on Gotland—are initiating and accelerating real-world, incremental transition for a region, aligned with niche-, regime- and landscape-level pressures. This research will answer what peculiar competencies are required of key cluster actors within the socio-technical niche of biogas production on Gotland, needed to activate a waste management system, aligned with niche-, regime-, and landscape-level pressures. The study identifies a cluster of actors working in the domains of food, energy, and waste recovery on the island. Through semi-structured interviews and informal participant observation the research describes the political economy of socio-technical governance at the local level of Gotland; the soft features of this domain and their socio-cultural foundations; and expressions of necropolitical power, repurposing the hard features of the niche-regime-landscape to accelerate transition. By identifying the frontrunners for energy transition; their peculiar competencies in this small-island context; and what alignments they foster between the niche, regime and the landscape, the work aims to offer innovative and replicable paths to accelerate transition in small-island contexts. By offering a descriptive overview—and prescriptive recommendations for transition in a variety of regional contexts—the research can provide possible recommendations to increase collaborative initiators, coherence, orchestration, and trust, replicable across regions in Sweden, while transitioning transition research.