Analysis In sorting through all of the data available from the RA/GAs, Country Energy Reviews, and secondary literature, especially for the section on the barriers, this report relied on two key concepts: grounded theory, and the social science systems approach (sometimes known as the “socio-technical systems approach”). Grounded theory—also called “interpretive tacking”, “grounded reading in data”, and “the discovery of theory from data”—enables researchers to draw conclusions from vast amounts of data when no clear theory or concept exists to guide interpretation. Basically, being “grounded” means the research began without preformed hypotheses. Instead, the process forces researchers to develop a conceptual account from the “ground up”, the analysis being “grounded” in the data collected itself.246 A grounded approach works exceptionally well when few relevant theories yet exist to explain what is being studied, as was the situation with understanding the dynamics of SE4ALL in the Asia-Pacific. The process of “grounding” and synthesizing data led the author to consider utilizing the social science systems approach, or socio-technical systems approach, to help guide the structuring of the section of the report on “Barriers and Impediments”. In his seminal Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, MIT historian Thomas P. Hughes argued that the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity occurs within a technological system that extends beyond the engineering realm. Such a system is understood to include a “seamless web” of considerations that can be categorized as economic, educational, legal, administrative, and technical.247
Secondly, systems possess both physical and immaterial components. The electric utility system refers not just to physical artifacts such as steam turbines and distribution wires, but also immaterial or epistemic elements, such as the knowledge needed to repair a broken generator or to construct a new transmission line. Hughes uses this epistemic element of the electric utility system to explain why such systems vary between geographic regions; the different socio-technical environments in Britain, Germany, and the US produced distinct types of electric utility networks. Bringing this back to SE4ALL, the systems approach suggests that in order to reach commercial dissemination and consumer adoption, new technologies—in this case, renewable energy, energy efficiency, rural electrification technologies, and improved cookstoves—must simultaneously address technical, economic and financial, political and institutional, and social and cultural challenges.248 It thus explains why Chapter Nine on “Barriers and Impediments” follows this structuring.
Review The contents of this report were distributed for peer review in order to gain feedback on three main aspects of this report: the accuracy of the data used, whether the energy resources and renewable technologies listed were correctly prioritized, and relevance of the main conclusions drawn from the regional analysis. Comments were sought from other UNDP offices, regional development partners, and government colleagues where possible. While an attempt was made to verify all information included here, feedback was not able to be obtained from all of the countries reviewed. As a result, the data extracted from the eight RA/GAs and Country Energy Reviews was assumed to be current at the time of drafting.
Hughes, and the socio-technical systems approach that he spawned, argues that large technological systems are simultaneously social and technical—or socio-technical—in at least two senses. First, systems require social institutions and technical hardware to function. The electric utility system, for example, contains social institutions such as regulatory bodies and financing firms. At the same time, it encompasses physical objects such as electric generators, transmission substations, and cooling towers.
Achieving Sustainable Energy for All in the Asia-Pacific
United Nations Development Programme Asia-Pacific Regional Centre
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