I am a political economist and geographer focused on the transformation of the global energy industry and the uneven development of global capitalism.
The main focus of my research is on the historical development of the global wind energy industry, from its origins in Northern Europe and the Western United States through its expansion into other world regions and the massive growth of the industry in China over the past decades. I am primarily interested in understanding dynamics of geographical restructuring, the changing composition of the workforce, and emerging strategies and tactics of trade union organization in the wind energy industry. Beyond this focus on the production process and the changing forms of union organization, I am also interested in understanding the role of the state in facilitating the growth of the wind energy industry through subsidy regimes, scientific research, and the development of skilled labour-power.
I am now a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Wind and Energy Systems at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Before starting to work at DTU, I completed my doctorate in geography at the Clark University Graduate School of Geography (Massachusetts, USA), with extended research visits at the University of Hamburg, the University of Bremen, and the City University of New York (CUNY). Before that, I studied economics, geography, and economic history at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
While most of my empirical research is focused on contemporary developments in the renewable energy industry, I try to situate this work within a longer history of capitalism, particularly the history of energy and the extractive industries. As a political economist and geographer, I am also very interested in the history of economic thought and the history of geographical thought. I approach this history from a materialist perspective, aiming to understand how theoretical and methodological shifts in the disciplines of economics and geography express underlying transformations in the social and technological organization of capitalist production and circulation.
Areas of
specialization:
geographies of capitalist industrialization
political economy of energy system transformation
labour process theory and labour regime research
methodological topics in the critique of political economy
(theory of value, accumulation, and crisis; dialectical method)
Areas of
interest:
history of energy and the extractive industries
history of labour unions and workers’ parties
history of economic thought
history of geographical thought
critical theories of urbanization
Current research
projects:
My empirical research is currently focused on the following topics and problems:
First, I am examining the changing spatial division of labor in the offshore wind energy industry, with attention to the dynamics of uneven geographical development in coastal regions in Europe.
Second, I am investigating the transformation of global labour regimes in the construction and installation of offshore wind farms, particularly in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea regions.
Third, I am analyzing the development of the spatial division of labour in the renewable energy industry in South Africa. This research is financed by the DANIDA Fellowship Centre (DFC) as part of the larger research project “Overcoming acceleration challenges in the South African energy transition (ACCELERATE).”
Please feel free to reach out to me by writing an email to wiwe [at] dtu [dot] dk