Frames, fantasies, and culture: Applying and comparing different methodologies for identifying energy imaginaries in American policy discourse

Although energy imaginaries are increasingly the focus of empirical study, little research has explored the methodological complications associated with studying imaginaries as an empirical concept. To help expand the methodological toolkit of energy imaginaries researchers, this paper examined whether systematic methods of identifying energy imaginaries in policy discourse could be constructed from the operationalizable components of three imaginary cognates—frames, fantasies, and cultural models—and how the visions uncovered by these methods resemble and deviate from each other. The case study research applied frame analysis, rhetorical analysis, and conventional discourse analysis to a single sample of energy policy documents published in Maine (United States) between 1996 and 2019 to discover potential commonalities and synergies among the results, and to shed light on the unique strengths, shortcomings, and limitations of the imaginary identification approaches. Similarities and differences in the results were analyzed and discussed in terms of three comparison criteria: number of unique visions detected, implicit moral values, and conceptions of renewable energy’s role in creating a desirable future. Results show an overall similarity and complementarity between the three analysis methods, but also reveal differences that suggest certain methods may be more suitable for specific types of studies and research questions.