Sangeetha Chandra-Shekeran

Australia is currently undergoing a major transformation in the electricity sector involving decarbonisation, decentralisation and digitalisation. This talk focuses on the central role of the state in the making, managing and unmaking of markets for electricity. Sangeetha will show how markets are historically and socially produced; how the state enables and limits markets to achieve social and political-economic goals; and the uncontrolled effects of these state interventions. Our understanding of how states govern markets remains impoverished so long as we continue to ignore the actual realms of state intervention and selectively focus attention on self-regulated aspects of markets. The conditions under which the state intervenes for social and environmental protection provide us with insights as to the spatial limits of commodifying society all the way down. It also shows how governing in and through markets is fraught and eludes the control of any single entity due to the complexities and interdependencies of market society.