Twelfth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

While the theme of cause and effect related to the evolution global energy sector is fertile ground for scientific research, commercial analysis and popular speculation, the aim of this paper is narrower in its scope. Therefore the paper takes several steps back and reflects upon the processes which have led energy in a historical context to move from one seen as primarily a social good, to one that is now perceived through the lenses of geopolitics and security of supply versus security of demand. The paper’s main goal is to explore the suspected role of evolving logics in defining both the concept of and physical structures associated with the energy trade within a European historical context.Based upon the dynamics of changing logics and drivers over time, the paper seeks to answer the following research question, to what extent are competing logics and their attributed drivers responsible for the structural evolution of Europe’s energy markets as seen within historical shifts from one period of time to another? The underlying hypothesis assumes with the transition of predominant logics and their associated drivers came an evolution in the way the business of providing energy was conceptualized and structurally organized. To illustrate the above dynamic, the aforementioned degree of change is operationalized by highlighting modifications to the resource base, physical infrastructure, pricing and financial mechanisms, contractual forms, and even down to the particulars of consumer behavior over the indicated time span of approximately sixty-five years.