Social movements and urban energy policy: Assessing contexts, agency and outcomes of remunicipalisation processes in Hamburg and Berlin

This paper assesses the influence of social movements as actors in urban energy politics. Presenting two case studies of remunicipalisation processes in the German cities Hamburg and Berlin, a framework is developed to discuss policy contexts, the agency of these movements, as well as the policy outcome in each city. A short comparison shows that agency is based on context features such as legal frameworks and social movement and policy traditions, while policy outcomes are considered the result of agency. Contextual circumstances must be considered if utility and urban energy policies are to be successfully transferred to other settings.