Framing the transition : How consultants shape public energy governance in Sweden
Reindl, Katharina LU ; Alfredsson Jofs, Ella LU
and Palm, Jenny
LU
(2026)
In Energy Research and Social Science
140.
- Abstract
The use of consultants in the public sector is a growing field of study, but their influence in the energy sector remains underexplored. Public agencies face significant pressure to design, implement, and coordinate the energy transition. Thus, they increasingly rely on consultants to provide specialised expertise, additional capacity, and external legitimacy. This article examines how consultants provide expertise and shape policy decisions in Sweden's public energy sector. The growing use of consultants raises questions about boundaries, their influence and accountability, and the hollowing out of public capacity. Based on 62 interviews with consultants and public actors, we analysed the roles consultants play and the influence they... (More)
The use of consultants in the public sector is a growing field of study, but their influence in the energy sector remains underexplored. Public agencies face significant pressure to design, implement, and coordinate the energy transition. Thus, they increasingly rely on consultants to provide specialised expertise, additional capacity, and external legitimacy. This article examines how consultants provide expertise and shape policy decisions in Sweden's public energy sector. The growing use of consultants raises questions about boundaries, their influence and accountability, and the hollowing out of public capacity. Based on 62 interviews with consultants and public actors, we analysed the roles consultants play and the influence they exert, using an integrated framework that combines four consultancy roles with functionalist and critical perspectives. Consultants mainly act as experts, knowledge brokers, legitimisers, and intermediaries, but rarely serve as channels for stakeholder input. Their influence on decision-making stems less from formal authority than from shaping how problems are defined, how policy options are framed, and how solutions come to seem credible and feasible. These patterns reveal how external expertise can subtly steer public-sector priorities, often in ways difficult to detect. While consultants provide essential expertise in a fast-changing energy sector, their involvement also introduces risks of dependency, opacity, and diminished institutional autonomy. Strengthening internal capacity can help ensure that external expertise adds value without undermining the public sector's ability to shape the energy transition. Consultants exert indirect influence on governance in the public-sector, with implications for accountability, legitimacy, and the governance of external expertise.
(Less)
- author
- Reindl, Katharina
LU
; Alfredsson Jofs, Ella
LU
and Palm, Jenny
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2026-10
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Consultants, Decision-making, Energy transition, Expertise, Legitimacy, Public sector governance, Qualitative research
- in
- Energy Research and Social Science
- volume
- 140
- article number
- 104959
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105050024007
- ISSN
- 2214-6296
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.erss.2026.104959
- project
- Electricity transition through intermediaries? Consultants in the smart grid development
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- a2f20c0b-48dd-4f8d-a2d0-939fc50d3916
- date added to LUP
- 2026-10-01 19:35:02
- date last changed
- 2026-10-02 07:59:01
@article{a2f20c0b-48dd-4f8d-a2d0-939fc50d3916,
abstract = {{<p>The use of consultants in the public sector is a growing field of study, but their influence in the energy sector remains underexplored. Public agencies face significant pressure to design, implement, and coordinate the energy transition. Thus, they increasingly rely on consultants to provide specialised expertise, additional capacity, and external legitimacy. This article examines how consultants provide expertise and shape policy decisions in Sweden's public energy sector. The growing use of consultants raises questions about boundaries, their influence and accountability, and the hollowing out of public capacity. Based on 62 interviews with consultants and public actors, we analysed the roles consultants play and the influence they exert, using an integrated framework that combines four consultancy roles with functionalist and critical perspectives. Consultants mainly act as experts, knowledge brokers, legitimisers, and intermediaries, but rarely serve as channels for stakeholder input. Their influence on decision-making stems less from formal authority than from shaping how problems are defined, how policy options are framed, and how solutions come to seem credible and feasible. These patterns reveal how external expertise can subtly steer public-sector priorities, often in ways difficult to detect. While consultants provide essential expertise in a fast-changing energy sector, their involvement also introduces risks of dependency, opacity, and diminished institutional autonomy. Strengthening internal capacity can help ensure that external expertise adds value without undermining the public sector's ability to shape the energy transition. Consultants exert indirect influence on governance in the public-sector, with implications for accountability, legitimacy, and the governance of external expertise.</p>}},
author = {{Reindl, Katharina and Alfredsson Jofs, Ella and Palm, Jenny}},
issn = {{2214-6296}},
keywords = {{Consultants; Decision-making; Energy transition; Expertise; Legitimacy; Public sector governance; Qualitative research}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Energy Research and Social Science}},
title = {{Framing the transition : How consultants shape public energy governance in Sweden}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2026.104959}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.erss.2026.104959}},
volume = {{140}},
year = {{2026}},
}