I cannot fix what doesn’t exist: Energy Poverty Discourse(s) in Germany

Abstract: The war in Ukraine has made the issue of energy poverty salient again in Germany after a long period of political neglect and limited attention. In studying the issue, I bridged agency and structure by employing Hajer’s Argumentative Discourse Analysis to examine both discourse coalitions and their storylines between 2017 and early 2022. I examined the discursive mechanisms behind the marginalization by turning Fraser’s reflections on misrecognition into a framework for analyzing the apparent discursive repudiation and de-structuralization of energy poverty. I find that the debate is structured by a plethora of misconceptions about both the nature of the problem and those affected by it, leading it to focus on micro-level solutions. A dissonant left-wing coalition has so far failed to overcome these misconceptions and mainstream the issue, while a right-wing coalition seems to have succeeded in telling a story that marginalizes it. A far-right coalition remains discursively isolated. I conclude that misrecognition has been used as a non-policymaking tool and that narrative coherence is key for discourse coalitions seeking to put a new issue on the agenda. Finally, I argue that the intentional and unintentional misrecognition of energy poverty is a form of injustice and leads to bad governance.