Anemos-Ity, Apatheia, Enthousiasmos: An Economic Sociology of Law and Wind Farm Development in Cyprus
40:1 Journal of Law and Society 68-91 and in D. Ashiagbor, P. Kotiswaran and A. Perry-Kessaris eds. (2013) Towards an Economic Sociology of Law, Journal of Law and Society Special Issue Series, Wiley.
32 Pages Posted: 27 Feb 2013 Last revised: 3 Jun 2019
Date Written: February 25, 2013
Abstract
This piece sketches ‘an’ economic sociology of law: one possible approach, in relation to one case study of wind farm development in Cyprus. Carbon emissions are a global threat to which wind farms may offer something of a solution. But wind farms can also pose local threats. So they tend to produce conflicts on different levels of social life: action, interaction, regime and rationality. As such they are ill-suited to exploration through law or economics, and ideally suited to exploration through economic sociology of law. The approach set out in this paper enables social life of all levels, intensities and types (including the economic) to be placed on the same analytical page. What emerges is a most human story of animosity, enthusiasm and apathy in which law acts variously as means, obstacle and irrelevance.
Keywords: Economic sociology of law, Cyprus, Kyoto, Aarhus, wind energy, carbon emissions
JEL Classification: K00, K32, K4
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation