Ungleichheiten in der grünen Transformation: Die prädistributive Macht von Infrastrukturen

The salience of inequality in climate change mitigation opens up opportunities for sociologists to play a more prominent role in this research field. The discipline is particularly well placed to broaden the perspective on socially exclusive or inclusive versions of mitigation beyond conventional redistributive policies (taxes, subsidies etc.), to look at the “predistributive” mechanisms embedded in infrastructures. Socio-material path dependencies define the extent and incidence of investment needs and asset stranding; institutions shape the power positions of suppliers and consumers. By comparing the “heat transitions” in Denmark and Germany, we show when infrastructures create politically mobilizable loser groups, and when they integrate households with limited resources into broadly legitimated energy transitions. On the basis of our approach, we show that the massive opposition against the so-called “heating law” in Germany emerged from a broad infrastructure alliance around gas that was able to use the argument of social justice against decarbonization.