The Role of Energy Communities as Institutional Mediators of Energy Citizenship and Policy Feedback

The concept of energy citizenship challenges technocratic policy narratives of current energy governance regimes for relying on a narrow conception of individuals as consumers. It juxtaposes these with narratives that highlight participation, collective action, and democratic responsibility as central elements of just energy transitions. Within this framing, energy communities are frequently attributed a key role in empowering individuals. Yet, the mechanisms through which policy narratives exert practical effects and how they are mediated by specific institutional arrangements, such as energy communities, remain under-researched. This paper examines these dynamics through two complementary theoretical approaches. Firstly, recognition justice (van Uffelen, 2022) highlights that dominant energy governance narratives often rely on exclusionary images of an “ideal” transition participant as acting individual (e.g. young, affluent, techno-affine, home owning) and thus neglect unequal capabilities to engage with, respond to, or benefit from energy policies (Sen, 1999). Misrecognition may thus constitute both a normative injustice and a practical barrier to participation and legitimacy by undermining the effectiveness of policy by addressing only a portion of the population. Secondly, the paper draws on policy feedback theories and constructivist institutionalism, which focus on the constitutive effects of policies and narratives (Mettler & Soss, 2004). Accordingly, rather than merely reflecting social realities in their conceptualization of human agency, policies embed implicit “theories of the citizen” that may actively shape political rationales, motivations, and norms over time (Pierson, 1993; Schmidt, 2008). For example, incentive-based instruments are often designed building on rational-choice assumptions and cost-minimisation that may crowd out civic or solidaristic norms by reinforcing consumerist identities (Frey & Jegen, 2001; Bowles, 2008). Moreover, it is presumed that such interpretive feedback is mediated by institutional context and by who communicates policies (Schneider & Ingram, 1997). Taken together, these approaches indicate that exclusionary or narrow narratives about individuals targeted in energy policies may simultaneously misrecognise social groups and actively reconfigure motivations, thus reinforcing the very consumerist rationales that energy citizenship seeks to overcome. Against this background, the paper asks how different institutional mediators shape the representational and constitutive effects of energy policy narratives and whether and how energy communities can effectively put narratives of more inclusive forms of energy citizenship into practice. It addresses these questions using comparative qualitative case studies of different local energy governance contexts in Switzerland, with a focus on energy communities as alternative political mediators. Energy communities are conceived not only as participatory structures, but also as institutional mediators that translate policies into locally anchored narratives of energy citizenship. Specifically, the study compares governance configurations in which energy policy measures (including DSM measures) are mediated either by government authorities, utility companies or locally anchored energy communities. Methodologically, it combines document analysis of policy drafts and communication materials with semi-structured interviews. By examining how different institutional mediators influence recognition and interpretative feedback of policy, the study contributes to understanding how narratives about the individual unfold their practical effects and to what extent energy communities can play a role in promoting justice, legitimacy and democratic sustainability of the energy transition.