Table 1 Different lenses of power on biofuels
Perception of biofuels | Definition | |
|---|---|---|
Power with | Sustainable innovation: certification processes leading to win-win situations | “Power with refers to processes of finding common ground among diverse interests, developing shared values and creating collective strength by organizing with each other (Partzsch and Fuchs [70]: 363).” |
Power to | Creative alternative: marginalized farmers empowering through biofuel production | “[A person] may have power to do or accomplish something by himself, and that power is not relational at all; it may involve other people if what he has power to do is a social or political action, but it need not (Pitkin [6]: 276-77).” |
Power over | Gold rush: | |
Visible power (first dimension) | lobbying activities and party financing to promote biofuels | “A has power over B to the extent that he can get B to do something that B would not otherwise do (Dahl [10]: 201).” |
Hidden power (second dimension) | Neglect of issues related to biofuel policies, such as competing food demands and land use change | “Power is also exercised when A devotes his energies to creating or reinforcing social and political values and institutional practices that limit the scope of the political process to public consideration of only those issues which are comparatively innocuous to A. To the extent that A succeeds in doing this, B is prevented, for all practical purposes, from bringing to the fore any issues that might in their resolution be seriously detrimental to A’s set of preferences (Bachrach and Baratz [11]: 948).” |
Invisible power (third dimension) | Manipulation of biofuel discourse by linking it only to public concerns about climate change and energy security | “A may exercise power over B by getting him to do what he does not want to do, but he also exercises power over him by influencing, shaping, or determining his very wants (Lukes [12], 23).” |
Unconscious power (fourth dimension) | Reproduction of industrial agricultural and transport fuels systems (with dominant and inferior positions of diverse actors) | “Lukes plus Foucault” (Guzzini [71]: 23): A and B are subordinates to discourses that make them continuously reproduce system and positions |