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ABSTRACT

Climate change is prompting a shift from fossil-based economies to green, net-zero production. This transition has led to technological advancements and the creation of new markets for green products. However, developing these products and markets presents challenges, such as points of contention arising from uncertainties about the effectiveness of certain green technologies. To address these challenges, actors involved in green market creation seek to establish stable social structures by producing compelling narratives and engaging in relational work to attract and sustain acceptance for their products. Using the case of carbon capture and removal technologies and leveraging in-depth interviews with key informants in the industry, I uncover how startups manage conflicting expectations by deploying technological classification and setting boundaries between fossil-fuel-linked aspects and the innovative, forward-looking characteristics of technological development. Simultaneously, innovators in this space engage in relational work with policy actors and investors to help mitigate uncertainties. This, in turn, shapes how they frame the purpose of the technology and reveals tensions between their vision and the broader institutional landscape. The findings are important for analyzing the emergence of green technologies and they deepen our understanding of the role of expectations in the social construction of markets and technology.

BIOGRAPHY

Mircea Gherghina is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto. He is interested in environmental policy, energy transitions, economic sociology, inequality, and science and technology studies. His dissertation research investigates the emergence and diffusion of clean technologies and the role of innovators in creating the green economy. In a parallel line of research, he investigates inequalities in solar PV markets and the role of organizations in accentuating these inequalities. His research has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and Energy Research & Social Science.