Energy Regionalisms in Theory and Practice

Regionalism has long conceptual and empirical histories across social sciences, and areas of the international and transnational practice of economics, imperialism, and environmental governance. However, energy regionalism remains in the early stages of development both conceptually and empirically. This article reviews three areas of diverse and interdisciplinary scholarship, including international relations, geography, and regional environmental governance, and draws lessons for research agendas associated with energy regionalism. It draws insights from recent work on comparative regionalisms, together with critical perspectives from geography scholarship, conceptualizing regionness as potentially subnational and transnational, as well as inter-state. Recent geographical literature examines regions and regionalisms as both sets of relational networks and territorial entities, with infrastructure playing a central role around questions of energy. The use of regionalism in international relations literatures, around regionally-framed environmental cooperation regimes, offers another set of conceptual and empirical lessons for an energy regionalism research agenda. Arguing that these areas have much to contribute to the study of a conceptual and theoretically diverse understanding of energy regionalisms research, the piece concludes by identifying five nodes for theorizing empirical research on energy regionalism: constructing regionness; inequality, money and power; epistemic and normative dimensions; diffusion and institutional hybridization; and scaling regionalism.