Energy Infrastructures and the Politics of Decarbonization in Taiwan, China, and the US

Description of research project: 

Few issues define the twenty-first century more sharply than climate change. My doctoral research examines the past, present, and future of climate solutions—and their limitations—inTaiwan, China, and the United States. I focus on green electrification: the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy in the electricity sector, and how these national trajectories shape one another.

This project is guided by two interrelated questions: (1) What political coalitions facilitate or obstruct a green electrification agenda? (2) What roles do energy infrastructure, knowledge, and expertise play in enabling such transitions? Broadly, I situate green electrification within cutting-edge interdisciplinary scholarship on climate change and the environmental state—that is, how states repurpose their economic development apparatuses for environmental goals. In doing so, this project also asks: under what conditions, and through what processes, can an environmental state be built democratically? What makes democratic energy planning possible in liberal regimes? And what are the costs and long-term consequences when the green transition is led primarily by state elites, capitalists, or authoritarian leaders, as in the United States and China?

Description of work that will be assigned to research assistants: 

As this project is currently in the data collection and analysis stage, much of the work can be completed remotely. Research assistants will help locate and code data, identify relevant news and policy resources on climate change and the green energy transition, and engage with interdisciplinary scholarship across energy history, science and technology studies, and political science.

There will be two primary tasks: Infrastructure, expertise, and knowledge: We will review and analyze selected news and professional trade outlets in both English and Mandarin Chinese. Global energy interconnections: We will examine policy reports from organizations such as the International Energy Agency and Ember, and analyze descriptive energy statistics to understand how developments in Taiwan, China, and the United States influence one another. These sources will primarily be in English.

Therefore, proficiency in Mandarin Chinese is required for research assistants.

Supervising Faculty Member: Rob Jansen 

Graduate Student: I-Lun Shih 

Contact Information: iluns@umich.edu

Average hours of work per week: 6 (inlcuding meetings); flexible when students have more coursework 

Range of credits students can earn: 2

Number of positions available: 2