Details zur Publikation

Kategorie Textpublikation
Referenztyp Zeitschriften
DOI 10.1016/j.erss.2019.101359
Titel (primär) How the diesel engine became a "dirty" actant: Compression ignitions and actor networks of blame
Autor Gross, M.; Sonnberger, M.
Quelle Energy Research & Social Science
Erscheinungsjahr 2020
Department SUSOZ
Band/Volume 61
Seite von art. 101359
Sprache englisch
Keywords Actor network theory; Blame; Diesel; Energy transition; Environmental sociology; Internal combustion engines; Mobility transition; Science and technology studies; Technological stigma; Dieselgate
Abstract The current article uses insights from actor network theory (ANT) to analyze and explain how the current situation regarding European diesel engines in passenger vehicles has become a locked-in affair of blame and technological stigma. Beginning with the development of EU emission standards in the early 1990s and culminating in the diesel scandal that came to light in September 2015, we reconstruct this process by describing the emergence of a translational blame game involving policy makers, carmakers, and environmental protection associations in Germany and beyond. We argue that it was the performative enactment of the blame game that has given the diesel compression-ignition engine a certain identity and, by so doing, turned it into a concrete actant. Although there may be different problem framings and interpretations, they ultimately became united in a single narrative that reconciles differences and avoids multiplicity by portraying the diesel engine as the “dirty” villain in the struggle for clean mobility. Thus, the diesel engine is now considered a technology of the past. We argue that it was the unique constellation of the actor networks involved that framed diesel engines in such a way that there are hardly any advocates of the engine left: the diesel engine as actant has ended up being a source of health-related hazards and therefore needs to be phased out.
dauerhafte UFZ-Verlinkung https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=22430
Gross, M., Sonnberger, M. (2020):
How the diesel engine became a "dirty" actant: Compression ignitions and actor networks of blame
Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 61 , art. 101359 10.1016/j.erss.2019.101359