Report on the case studies describing the diversity, processes and contributions of SIE, SIE-field and SIE-initiatives in six countries

This report addresses the following research questions: How do Social Innovation in energy (SIE) and SIE-fieldsemerge, develop, and institutionalise over time? How do SIE-field-actors and other field-actors interact with the‘outside’ institutional environment and thereby co-shape the SIE-field over time? What are the enabling and impeding factors for SIE-field-actors and other field-actors to conduct institutional work and change the ‘outside’ institutional environment? In WP3, we make use of a multiple, embedded case study approach, building a better understanding of SIE-fields (e.g. ‘local electricity exchange’ and ‘cooperative organisational models for renewable energy’) using diverse units of analysis. The main unit of analysis is the SIE-field, whereas the subunits of analysis are made up of the SIE (e.g. multi-actor collectives implementing local electricity exchange), different SIE-field-actors (who work on) and their SIE-initiatives (e.g. Energy Local or Ripple Energy, UK) and other field-actors (who enable and impede SIE) (e.g. Ofgem’s sandbox trials, UK). They are embedded in their respective context, which relates to wider socio-political, social-economic and sociocultural issues linked to these actors and SIE-field. The case studies are presented as a series of six country reports: France, Germany, Netherlands/Belgium, Poland, Switzerland, and United Kingdom. Each country report contains documentation of three embedded case studies of SIE-fields set in their national context, giving a full set of 18 embedded case studies across all six SONNET countries. In these embedded case studies, 36 cases of SIE-initiatives are nested within the SIE-field investigations.