Bending the rules: Socio-spatial possibilities and constraints in financing urban renewable energy transitions

Abstract

This thesis examines the role of finance in sociotechnical systems change towards sustainable modes of production and consumption in cities. With a focus on renewable energy as a substitute for fossil fuels, the thesis draws on geographical critiques of mainstream sustainability transitions theory, which fail to account for the role of place and space in explaining how transitions unfold, and critical geographical studies of finance articulating how contemporary capitalist orthodoxies contribute to uneven urban development. To better explain spatial difference in the diffusion of low-carbon innovations, the thesis documents how finance – comprising actors, institutions, and instruments – pro..