Making Good Economies with Bad Economic Instruments: A brief history of wind power’s changing economies

José Ossandón; Trine Pallesen; Peter Karnøe; Susse Georg

doi:10.3384/VS.2001-5992.2025.12.1.67-95

Authors

José Ossandón Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2927-1878
Trine Pallesen Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8844-9336
Peter Karnøe Department of Sustainability and Planning, Aalborg University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0480-5426
Susse Georg Department of Sustainability and Planning, Aalborg University https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9981-2444

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3384/VS.2001-5992.2025.12.1.67-95

Keywords:

policy instruments, wind power, semiotics, resource, good economy, ANT

Abstract

This article examines how notions of the good are entangled with instruments of valuation in the case of wind power in Denmark. Analytically, we develop what we tentatively call a comparative actantial approach to the study of policy instruments. Empirically, we inspect three support schemes introduced between 1979 and 1999 by the Danish state to foster the development of wind power. The comparative inspection shows wind power's notable shifts in what we call its actantial status: the same character appears as a very different kind of agent in the very different good economies for wind power portrayed by the instruments. The article contributes to two different but related literatures: it contributes to recent intersection between science and technology studies and economic geography inspecting the variable ontologies of energy resources, and it contributes to the discussion in this theme issue about instruments of valuation and the good economy.

Author Biographies

José Ossandón, Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School

José Ossandón is Associate Professor in the Organization of Markets, Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School. He specializes in economic sociology, social studies of finance, and markets studies. His current collaborative research efforts focus on two main areas: the work and techniques deployed in the organization of markets designed to address collective problems, and on the instruments and practices involved in managing household finance. He is co-editor-in-chief of Valuation Studies and associate editor of the Journal of Cultural Economy.

Trine Pallesen, Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School

Trine Pallesen is Associate Professor at the Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School. Situated at the intersection of economic sociology and science and technology studies, her work focusses on the use of markets as policy instruments – markets for collective concerns. In particular, she has studied how markets and market instruments are designed to increase renewable energy in energy systems. She has published in journals such as Economy and Society, Journal of Cultural Economy, Science as Culture, and Perspectives on Public Management and Governance. She is co-editor-in-chief of Valuation Studies.

Peter Karnøe, Department of Sustainability and Planning, Aalborg University

Peter Karnøe is professor at the Department of Sustainability and Planning, Aalborg University (AAU). He joined AAU in 2012 from the Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School. Mobilizing insights from science, technology and innovation as well as valuation and market studies, his research on wind power and clean tech examines how technical innovations must also innovate their qualifications and contexts to become valued. He has published broadly in transition and management journals and co-authored books on varieties of capitalism and offered the term path creation in opposition to path dependency thinking (with Raghu Garud).

Susse Georg, Department of Sustainability and Planning, Aalborg University

Susse Georg is professor emeritus at the Department of Sustainability and Planning, Aalborg University (AAU). She joined AAU in 2012 from the Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School. Mobilizing insights from organizational theory as well as valuation and market studies, her research examines the processes and paradoxes of the ‘greening’ of industry and the energy sector. She has published broadly in engineering as well as management journals and co-authored several books and edited volumes on business and the natural environment.

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