Free floating or free riding? Recursive norm-building in the German energy transition using the example of the approval of e-scooters in German cities

The project of the Energiewende, a transition toward sustainable energy production and consumption, is one of the most ambitious proposal of German politics. This project implies changes in the energy sector but also in crucial sectors such as building and transportation. At present, the Energiewende has successfully challenged the traditionally legitimated order, but it has not yet secured a stable normative basis, which is necessary for the new regime. This chapter argues that the current transformation cannot successfully unfold as a top-down process. On the contrary, several key actors are in dispute, regarding not only technical and economic issues but also the related norms. The chapter focuses on one limited, but currently highly debated example from the transportation sector: the authorisation of e-scooters in German cities. Several actors actively seek to influence the legislators but also show free-riding behaviour when it comes to the interpretation of normative margins. In this way they re-specify, ie, filter and modify, norms. The legislators react to these re-specifications with follow-up norms and ordinances, which in turn become new starting points for further re-specifications in a highly recursive and open-ended regulation process.