Energy Management in 21st Century: An Inquiry into the Mounting Corporate Hegemony Over Basic Human Necessities and the Role of Civil Society as a Countervailing Force

33 Pages Posted: 23 Mar 2009 Last revised: 6 Jul 2009

See all articles by Dipankar Dey

Dipankar Dey

Nilkantha Trust for Studies on Bay of Bengal Region; Department of Business Management, University of Calcutta

Date Written: March 23, 2009

Abstract

In 21st century, as energy and food supplies are increasingly becoming dependent on each other, any strategy to manage these two basic human needs should be formulated collectively - not in isolation.

The 'green revolution' of 1950s had made modern agriculture dependent on chemical fertilizer - derived mainly from petroleum and natural gas. That was the beginning of ascertaining corporate control on food and water. Through the enactment and subsequent ratification of Kyoto Protocol, the corporate hegemony on air and energy has been established firmly.

During last hundred and fifty odd years, a symbiotic relationship between the state and large corporations was developed. It dates back to as early as mid nineteenth century when in response to the request of the erstwhile East India Company, the British Empire decided to send troops to India to tackle shepoy mutiny (1857) and intervene directly in the administrative matters of the land. In the present century, when the multilateral bodies like WTO regulates the global business environment, the transnational corporations are trying to break away from such dependence on state and emerge as the dominant force to control and manage the global market, independent of any intervention of the sovereign states. This tendency to break away from the protective shadow of the state is likely to continue despite recent turmoil in the global economy. This study has been divided into two sections. Section A explains the consequences of this changing relation between the 'state' and 'corporations' on the food and energy needs of the citizens. Section B analyses various issues pertaining to the energy supplies during the next few decades of the 21st century. This analysis has been made in the context of (i) the paradigm shifts observed in recent years in the generation/production process;(ii) the increasingly important role the civil society organizations (CSOs) are expected to play as a countervailing force against the oligopolistic power of the global corporations and (iii) the changing role and relative importance of major stake holders in shaping the energy supplies

The paper concludes that in future, CSOs will play an important role in steering the course of society especially in the allocation and distribution of basic human necessities like food and energy. They are likely to determine the outlook and future course of the energy utilities of the 21st century. Energy and food security of the common citizens will depend on the establishment of a network of CSOs that will act as a countervailing force to the oligopolistic power of the global firms.

Keywords: Electricity retailing, food retailing, renewable energy, decentralized generation, civil society, multilateral organization, small and micro enterprise (SME), SMEs

JEL Classification: A10

Suggested Citation

Dey, Dipankar, Energy Management in 21st Century: An Inquiry into the Mounting Corporate Hegemony Over Basic Human Necessities and the Role of Civil Society as a Countervailing Force (March 23, 2009). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1366977 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1366977

Dipankar Dey (Contact Author)

Nilkantha Trust for Studies on Bay of Bengal Region ( email )

J 48 Banerjee Para
Garia
Kolkata, 700 084
India

Department of Business Management, University of Calcutta ( email )

J 48 Banerjee Para
Garia
Kolkata, 700 084
India

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
141
Abstract Views
1,069
Rank
370,717
PlumX Metrics