CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2026
| Author | Plumhans, Laure-Anne |
|---|---|
| Title | In Pursuit of Energy Autonomy: Territorial Power, Dependency and Land Politics in Martinique and Reunion Island |
| Summary | This dissertation investigates the energy transition of two French Overseas Islands, Martinique and Reunion. Both islands are on track to achieve 100% renewable electricity by converting their fossil production units to imported biomass. This milestone contradicts their ambition to achieve energy autonomy (i.e., producing all their energy locally). To understand this contradiction, the dissertation examines the implications of pursuing energy on the structure of territorial power inherited from the plantation system. This structure includes the continuous dependency upon an external center and an unequal, monocultural use of the land and its resources. For plantation islands like Martinique and Reunion, energy autonomy can have political consequences. By relocating energy production at home, energy autonomy can affect relationships of dependency between places and imply the local reorganization of the production of resources. In particular, space-intensive renewable technologies can impact existing land uses and related industries and interests. Yet, these territorial aspects are rarely addressed by scientific research, which fails to capture how energy autonomy can rework the structures of power between places and within them. These are crucial for places that lie at the periphery of central powers, such as Sub-National Islands Jurisdictions (SNIJs), where political autonomy and colonial struggles over the land are recurring political topics. Fieldwork was conducted in both islands in 2023. The data collected includes semi-structured interviews, observation notes, and document analysis. Territorial theories and concepts taken from socio-technical and spatial imaginaries guided the analysis. The dissertation finds that the implementation of energy technologies harnessing local renewable resources challenges the territorial structure of the plantation. In Reunion, the implementation of renewables confronts existing land uses and beneficiaries, whereas in Martinique, it tends to benefit those who already extract value from the land. Yet, in both cases, the implementation of local renewables offers the opportunity for local actors to re-negotiate how the land is used and to whose benefit. Moreover, by reducing energy dependency, local energy production questions the structural dependencies that link these islands to the State and economic powers. In contrast, the reliance on imported biomass maintains dependency relationships and removes land politics from the electricity debate. Through these findings, the dissertation demonstrates that energy autonomy is more than a technical issue; it is a territorial problem impacting structures of power across scales. Understanding the territorial implications of different energy transition trajectories is relevant to identifying which futures they propose, the power relations they sustain, and how they are implemented or resisted. |
| Supervisor | LaBelle, Michael; Aistara, Guntra |
| Department | Environment Sciences and Policy PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2026/plumhans_laure-anne.pdf |
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