Policy change driven by niche advocacy coalitions: The German residential heat case

Transitions are an inherently political enterprise (Rosenbloom et al. 2016, p.1276). However, the role of policy and the political and collective action required for policy change has not yet been elaborated satisfactorily in transitions literature (e.g. Markard et al. 2015, Haukkala 2017). As Geels (2002) and Fleck (1993) point out technology “itself, has no power, does nothing”. It needs human agency and social structures as enablers to fulfil its societal function. Thus, it needs actors (individuals, companies, societal associations etc.) that thrive to change policy in support for more sustainable technologies. In order to better understand the role of politics and policy in transitions this paper draws on the Advocacy Coalitions Framework (ACF) which aims to explain actor driven policy change (Weible & Sabatier 2007). In the ACF “efforts of advocacy coalitions” are seen as one of the major reasons for policy change (Sabatier 1989 p.148). The framework argues that coalitions, which consist of actors that share a common belief system, are able to initiate institutional change when acting in concert (Sabatier 1998, Schlager 1995, Weible et al. 2011). In this contribution, we explore these suppositions for sustainability transitions and build a theoretical model that applies the assumptions from the ACF to the actor groups that support emerging technologies. These actor groups are introduced as niche advocacy coalitions. The exemplary domain under study is the German residential heat sector, a sector which transitions at low pace (German federal Government 2015). Within the German residential heat sector, we analyse in detail the emerging niche of renewable fuelled district heating networks, which are seen as a central component of a more sustainable future heat infrastructure (German Federal Government Climate Action Plan 2050, Nov. 2016). The paper uses insights from a document research and 38 semi-structured interviews that were performed with individuals who implement low carbon residential heating projects, company and industry representatives, regional politicians and representatives of national interest groups. The interviews were conducted in summer 2016, and fully transcribed and analysed using qualitative content analysis. Concerning niche advocacy coalitions, we learn that they indeed exist and that many of the assumptions from the ACF on coalitions hold; they share the same moral values and act in concert. However, looking through an MLP lens we find that the number of coalitions in one sector is likely to be more granular, meaning that the coalitions consist of a substantial number of smaller niche coalitions that evolve around single technologies. These need to be institutionally aligned in order to strengthen the overall coalition. Furthermore, we find that it is not easy in our case to delineate niche advocacy coalitions. Actors construct their niches and coalitions in accordance not only to their values but also to their strategic interests using delineation as a strategic device. Concerning the slow pace of the heat transition we find that it is likely that the higher degree of actor and technology heterogeneity in this sector may be one reason for the lack of a powerful coalition that commands over enough strength to successfully induce policy change. This abstract is deemed to contribute to better understanding policy change in the transitions context. Hence, we submit it as an original full paper in track 3 - Politics and power in transitions.