Delaying Energy Transitions

Energy security, neoliberalism, and the social construction of fossil dependence

Faber, Hugo

2026

This dissertation explores how the economic decline of fossil and nuclear industries is resisted through new ways of representing them as necessary. It argues that energy policy is dominated by experts and elites, and studies the discourse within these circles. Using poststructural policy analysis, the thesis studies three cases in three articles through an empirical material of 56 elite interviews and 91 policy documents. The cases consist of political decisions to manage the decline of peat in Finland, oil shale in Estonia, and nuclear power in Sweden. The cases are compared in this book. The thesis contributes to scholarship on energy security, energy transitions, and neoliberalism, and argues for an increased dialogue between these literatures. 

The thesis shows how the representation of fossil and nuclear industries as necessary for a secure supply of energy can legitimize state support to delay their decline. It argues that geopolitics and external crises are neither sufficient nor necessary conditions for such representations to succeed, and always part of a larger picture including domestic interests and the complex reality of managing energy systems. The dissertation also argues that the portrayal of fossil and nuclear industries as necessary for energy security depends on technical assumptions about the reliability and the lack of alternatives to these industries. These assumptions should not be taken at face value as neutral or technical “facts,” as they downplay and highlight different technical risks, drawbacks, and advantages. The thesis argues that such assumptions are understudied but often decisive in decision-making and, consequently, that social scientists should pay closer attention to their construction and to the contingent and political nature of expert knowledge. 

The thesis also shows that the neoliberal rationality that prevails in energy governance can both enable and constrain the representation of fossil and nuclear industries as necessary, depending on the societal dependence on these industries. While this rationality precludes state support to uncompetitive industries in theory, it can give industries that control critical infrastructures political leverage in practice. Moreover, by handing over control of the infrastructure upon which energy security depends to the market, neoliberal rationality limits the state’s ability to act. This, the thesis argues, can result in a state of semi-permanent crisis management where there appear to be no other options than preserving existing fossil capacities.

Huddinge : Södertörns högskola, 2026. s. 160.

ISBN 978-91-89962-83-5

Södertörn Doctoral Dissertations, 1652-7399; 262

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