Energy futures reimagined: the global energy transition and dependence on Russian energy as issues in the sociotechnical imaginaries of energy security in Finland

Abstract

European countries are facing a dual challenge in 2022 with regard to how to reimagine energy security after cutting ties to Russian energy, but without undermining the imperative for a continent-wide energy transition. In this article, a sociotechnical imaginaries framework is utilised to capture the broader sociotechnical dynamics beyond the typical connotation of energy security through supply-side economics. This is implemented by situating discursive struggles over the framing of the global energy transition and energy dependence on Russia vis-à-vis predominant visions of energy security in Finland. By utilising argumentative discourse analysis based on interview and documentary data focusing on debates in Finland during 2015–2019, the article uncovers predominant sociotechnical imaginaries connected to energy security and discursive struggles over potentially reframing them. The identified tensions focused on 1) how future energy security should be governed, 2) whether Russia is a threat or reliable trading partner and supplier of energy, and 3) how to approach the energy transition in relation to energy security. While the focus is on controversies, the analysis also identifies increasing coherence in attaining both security and sustainability goals. There are attempts to imagine energy futures in a more sociotechnical fashion that would capture the societal dynamics more broadly. The predominant ways of imagining societal development coproduced with energy technologies tend to be constrained by techno-economic rationality. Up to the early months of 2022, this typically undermined societal and political risks in favour of interdependence and market-driven liberalism, also widely shared across the European Union.