The citizen multiple: Investigating the enactment of citizen engagement in the energy transition

One of the largest challenges of societies worldwide is the transition to sustainable energy systems. As energy transitions are complex and systemic transitions that affect citizens in many ways, it is widely argued that this requires the engagement of citizens and the cooperation of both governmental and societal actors. While policy makers are experimenting with diverse methods and tools to facilitate ‘citizen participation’ in the energy transition, research shows that results are not satisfactory and that citizens active in these processes are not representative of the wider community. To explain for these dynamics and improve participatory processes, practitioners and academics have paid much attention to different kinds of methods and technics for organizing participation. However, what remains largely unclear is how citizen engagement in the energy transition works in practice. We still know relatively little about how, where and when citizens become involved, how they enact their engagement in practice, and how this is affected by its context. This paper aims to offer such a practice-based approach to citizen engagement, by focusing on how citizen engagement is enacted in the energy transition in one particular neighbourhood, and how this enactment influences the character of citizen engagement. We develop an analytical framework that builds on practice theory and dramaturgical analysis, and highlights the performative dimensions of citizen engagement practices. Empirically, this study is based on an extensive ethnographic case study of a ‘disadvantaged’ neighbourhood in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, that is at the forefront of the transition to renewable energy. Through different methods of participatory action research with policy makers, practitioners, local initiatives and residents, we studied how citizen engagement takes on different shapes and meanings in a plethora of practices in this neighbourhood. The study shows, among others, that citizen engagement requires long term investment in relationships and depends on trust and recognition between and among residents, initiatives and practitioners, but that this opposes the often shorter term goals, interests and budgets of energy transition policies. To navigate these complex negotiations, stimulate citizen engagement and improve its inclusiveness, local residents that literally and figuratively speak different languages are crucial players and need more support and recognition for their role in facilitating citizen engagement in the energy transition. These ‘transition entrepreneurs’ and their initiatives create platforms of inclusivity and new ‘publics’ that give people the opportunity to collectively imagine, discuss and shape the future of their neighbourhood.