IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v193y2024ics0301421524002866.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Searching for stable electricity in Monrovia: Co-evolution of energy infrastructure and practices

Author

Listed:
  • Innis, Phillip Garjay
  • Van Assche, Kristof
  • Müller-Mahn, Detlef

Abstract

Development requires action, adaptation, and transformation of both governance and physical infrastructure. Energy infrastructure unfolds as the infrastructure that facilitates the growth of other infrastructures and development. This paper argues it is critical to examine the complex, non-linear evolution of energy infrastructure and policy alongside the intricate, non-linear evolution of governance in general, and planning specifically, in southern cities, particularly those with a history of instability, scarcity and incomplete infrastructure. Monrovia, Liberia, provides a compelling example of the intricate co-evolution of policy, infrastructure and practices in unpredictable and unstable contexts that require adaptability, resilience and innovation. Understanding such a landscape is important because governance reflects characteristics of constant evolution, improvisation and searching within a broader system that is also evolving. The objective is to better grasp how the double and coupled processes of ‘searching’ and ‘planning’ interact to shape the landscape of options for tackling incomplete electricity infrastructure. The incompleteness of both governance and infrastructure retains benefits whilst the interplay of searching and planning can allow for positive adaptations in terms of governance and infrastructure; however, we equally know adaptation can take place in unsustainable contexts, thereby engendering the potential for risks and missed opportunities.

Suggested Citation

  • Innis, Phillip Garjay & Van Assche, Kristof & Müller-Mahn, Detlef, 2024. "Searching for stable electricity in Monrovia: Co-evolution of energy infrastructure and practices," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:193:y:2024:i:c:s0301421524002866
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2024.114266
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421524002866
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2024.114266?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Armbruster, Ginger & Endicott-Popovsky, Barbara & Whittington, Jan, 2013. "Threats to municipal information systems posed by aging infrastructure," International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 123-131.
    2. Adenikinju, Adeola F., 2003. "Electric infrastructure failures in Nigeria: a survey-based analysis of the costs and adjustment responses," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(14), pages 1519-1530, November.
    3. Rodrigo Alves Rolo & Kristof Van Assche & Martijn Duineveld, 2021. "Strategy and Steering in Governance: The Changing Fates of the Argentine Planning Council," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(2), pages 415-427.
    4. Chirambo, Dumisani, 2016. "Addressing the renewable energy financing gap in Africa to promote universal energy access: Integrated renewable energy financing in Malawi," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 793-803.
    5. Bhattacharyya, S.C. & Palit, D., 2021. "A critical review of literature on the nexus between central grid and off-grid solutions for expanding access to electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    6. María José Zapata Campos & Ester Barinaga & Jaan-Henrik Kain & Michael Oloko & Patrik Zapata, 2023. "Organising grassroots infrastructure: The (in)visible work of organisational (in)completeness," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(1), pages 126-145, January.
    7. Dagnachew, Anteneh G. & Hof, Andries F. & Roelfsema, Mark R. & van Vuuren, Detlef P., 2020. "Actors and governance in the transition toward universal electricity access in Sub-Saharan Africa," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    8. Kimemia, David & Annegarn, Harold, 2016. "Domestic LPG interventions in South Africa: Challenges and lessons," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 150-156.
    9. Easterly, William, 2007. "The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill And So Little Good," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199226115.
    10. Abraham Marshall Nunbogu & Prosper Issahaku Korah, 2017. "Self-organisation in urban spatial planning: evidence from the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area, Ghana," Urban Research & Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(4), pages 423-441, October.
    11. Kazeem Bello Ajide & Risikat Oladoyin Dauda & Olorunfemi Yasiru Alimi, 2023. "Electricity access, institutional infrastructure and health outcomes in Africa," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 198-227, January.
    12. van Assche, Kristof & Valentinov, Vladislav & Verschraegen, Gert, 2022. "Adaptive governance: Learning from what organizations do and managing the role they play," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 51(5), pages 1738-1758.
    13. Paul Jones, 2017. "Formalizing the Informal: Understanding the Position of Informal Settlements and Slums in Sustainable Urbanization Policies and Strategies in Bandung, Indonesia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-27, August.
    14. Susan Leigh Star & Karen Ruhleder, 1996. "Steps Toward an Ecology of Infrastructure: Design and Access for Large Information Spaces," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 7(1), pages 111-134, March.
    15. Williams, Martin J., 2017. "The Political Economy of Unfinished Development Projects: Corruption, Clientelism, or Collective Choice?," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 111(4), pages 705-723, November.
    16. Gregory, Julian & Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2019. "Rethinking the governance of energy poverty in sub-Saharan Africa: Reviewing three academic perspectives on electricity infrastructure investment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 344-354.
    17. Jeuland, Marc & Babyenda, Peter & Beyene, Abebe & Hinju, Gabriel & Mulwa, Richard & Phillips, Jonathan & Zewdie, Samuel A., 2023. "Barriers to off-grid energy development: Evidence from a comparative survey of private sector energy service providers in Eastern Africa," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    18. Van Assche, Kristof & Gruezmacher, Monica & Summers, Bob & Culling, Joshua & Gajjar, Shaival & Granzow, Michael & Lowerre, Andrew & Deacon, Leith & Candlish, Jared & Jamwal, Abhimanyu, 2022. "Land use policy and community strategy. Factors enabling and hampering integrated local strategy in Alberta, Canada," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    19. Prince K. Guma, 2022. "The Temporal Incompleteness of Infrastructure and the Urban," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(1), pages 59-67, January.
    20. Easterly, William, 2006. "Planners versus Searchers in Foreign Aid," Asian Development Review, Asian Development Bank, vol. 23(2), pages 1-35.
    21. William Easterly, 2006. "Planners versus Searchers in Foreign Aid," Asian Development Review (ADR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(02), pages 1-35.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bandana Gurung & Hou Junjun & Raksha Gurung Shrestha & Wahib Ali Musleh Elayah, 2024. "Exploring the Impact of Foreign Loans, and Foreign Aid on Economic Performance: Evidence from Nepal," Bulletin of Business and Economics (BBE), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 13(1), pages 907-914.
    2. David Tilson & Kalle Lyytinen & Carsten Sørensen, 2010. "Research Commentary ---Digital Infrastructures: The Missing IS Research Agenda," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 21(4), pages 748-759, December.
    3. Simplice A. Asongu & Jacinta C. Nwachukwu, 2017. "Foreign Aid and Inclusive Development: Updated Evidence from Africa, 2005–2012," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 98(1), pages 282-298, March.
    4. Ryan C. Briggs, 2015. "The Influence of Aid Changes on African Election Outcomes," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(2), pages 201-225, March.
    5. Simplice A. Asongu & Jacinta C. Nwachukwu, 2018. "Increasing Foreign Aid for Inclusive Human Development in Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 138(2), pages 443-466, July.
    6. Asteris Huliaras & Sotiris Petropoulos, 2016. "European Money in Greece: In Search of the Real Impact of EU Structural Funds," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(6), pages 1332-1349, November.
    7. Emmanuelle Vaast & Geoff Walsham, 2009. "Trans-Situated Learning: Supporting a Network of Practice with an Information Infrastructure," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 20(4), pages 547-564, December.
    8. Pradeep Racherla & Munir Mandviwalla, 2013. "Moving from Access to Use of the Information Infrastructure: A Multilevel Sociotechnical Framework," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(3), pages 709-730, September.
    9. Salmon, Claire & Tanguy, Jeremy, 2016. "Rural Electrification and Household Labor Supply: Evidence from Nigeria," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 48-68.
    10. Benjamin Marx, 2018. "Elections as Incentives: Project Completion and Visibility in African Politics," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03873801, HAL.
    11. Cass, Noel & Schwanen, Tim & Shove, Elizabeth, 2018. "Infrastructures, intersections and societal transformations," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 160-167.
    12. Samuel Perlo‐Freeman & Don J. Webber, 2009. "Basic Needs, Government Debt and Economic Growth," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(6), pages 965-994, June.
    13. Thapa, Samir & Morrison, Mark & Parton, Kevin A, 2021. "Willingness to pay for domestic biogas plants and distributing carbon revenues to influence their purchase: A case study in Nepal," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    14. Thomas S. Ulen, 2011. "The Uneasy Case for Competition Law and Regulation as Decisive Factors in Development: Some Lessons for China," Chapters, in: Michael Faure & Xinzhu Zhang (ed.), Competition Policy and Regulation, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Joaquin Morales Belpaire, 2012. "Decentralized Aid and Democracy," Working Papers 1212, University of Namur, Department of Economics.
    16. Dasgupta, Aditya & Kapur, Devesh, 2021. "The Political Economy of Bureaucratic Overload: Evidence from Rural Development Officials in India," SocArXiv 2qvwb_v1, Center for Open Science.
    17. Sotiria Grek, 2022. "The education Sustainable Development Goal and the generative power of failing metrics [The Learning Metrics Task Force 2.0: Taking the Global Dialogues on Measuring Learning to the Country Level]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(4), pages 445-457.
    18. Simplice Asongu, 2016. "Reinventing Foreign Aid For Inclusive And Sustainable Development: Kuznets, Piketty And The Great Policy Reversal," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 736-755, September.
    19. Harris, J. Andrew & Posner, Daniel N., 2022. "Does decentralization encourage pro-poor targeting? Evidence from Kenya’s constituencies development fund," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    20. Ashley Carse & Joshua A Lewis, 2017. "Toward a political ecology of infrastructure standards: Or, how to think about ships, waterways, sediment, and communities together," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(1), pages 9-28, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:193:y:2024:i:c:s0301421524002866. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.