Energy citizens – Conveyors of changing democratic institutions?

Abstract

A transition towards a low-carbon energy system poses new challenges to democratic participation. The transition to clean energy requires a better understanding of crosscutting sociocultural and sociopolitical issues, such as democratic institutions, to devise effective ways of involving citizens and better understand how energyrelated views and attitudes are embedded in democratic practice. This paper discusses how the emergence of energy citizenship complies with and holds the possibility for institutional innovation regarding citizen participation. The research question considers how the conceptual innovation of energy citizenship, that is associated with new forms of citizen engagement in fossil fuel reduction policy, positions itself in the debate on participation as an institutionalised value of democracy. Four archetypes of energy citizenship are compared with different forms of democratic citizen participation, and their innovative potential is discussed. This paper is based on the theory of institutions, innovation, and citizen participation.