Vilka ramar formar framtiden? En analys av epistemologiska förhållningssätt i energistrategiskt arbete

Sammanfattning

The energy sector's dominant share of the anthropogenic environmental and climate impact makes the subject highly relevant for sustainable development. The paper aims to shed light on what influences energy strategy work in order to contribute to perspectives on which knowledge is prioritized. My method was of an ethnographic approach, where I was given the opportunity to do an internship at the County Administrative Board of Skåne's climate and energy unit for ten weeks. During these ten weeks, I conducted participant observations along with ten interviews. The results show that energy planning and climate-related government work largely rests on a quantitative, measurability-oriented knowledge paradigm, which is characterized by working objectively, based on the principles of the state's core values. This measurability paradigm creates legitimacy and protection for officials, but also means that responsibility is individualized, as those who cannot show that the choice was “objectively best” risk being held personally responsible for an “incorrect” decision. This makes it difficult for strategists to dare to choose, and guiding choices become diffuse and “fluffy”. At the same time, the interviews testify to a strong commitment to values ​​for the environment, justice and democracy, which today are mainly kept outside the professional sphere or baked into technical and economic reasoning in order to be recognized as legitimate knowledge in strategic work. In this way, the knowledge, both the academic qualifications and the experiences of the officials are ignored when value dialogues are kept outside of goal formulations and strategic approaches. Something that does not indicate knowledge-promoting, active and conscious choices that take democratic dialogues into account.