Technological Legitimacy, Discourses, and the Role of Policy Entrepreneurs in Wind Energy Transition

Abstract

Legitimacy plays a decisive role in shaping the acceptance of technology in a sociotechnical regime, and it results from the interplay between discourses and policy actors. This study examines the discourses and roles of key actors in legitimizing wind energy expansion in Brazil from 2015 to 2022. By analyzing 979 newspaper articles using Content Analysis, Discourse Network Analysis and Advocacy Coalition Framework, we identified influential coalitions, central policy actors, and legitimizing discourses. The findings reveal the fit-and-conform and stretch-and-transform discursive strategies, with more stable economic beliefs overlapping sustainable beliefs. A turning point occurred in 2020, likely heralding a new market opportunity for green hydrogen, sparking a further investigation. We also identified the centrality of policy-entrepreneurship and discussed these results with a theoretical perspective about discursive stability and non-state actors' role in sustainability transition, highlighting the problem of dominance on economic beliefs, where short-term success may not guarantee long-term sustainability changes.

Keywords: Technology Legitimacy, politics, Discourses, Wind Energy, Network Analysis