As citizen participation gains traction in the European energy transition, diverse forms of collective energy initiatives (CEIs) emerge as key mechanisms for enabling stronger citizen involvement in the energy system and changing consumption behavior. Fully understanding all forms of collective energy initiatives is crucial to avoid the risk of misaligning engagement with people's lived realities, interests, and capacities, and to inadvertently alienating or excluding groups whose preferred forms of participation do not fit the dominant form of engagement. Drawing on original survey data from 232 participants across Europe, collected within the Horizon 2020 ENCLUDE project, this paper compares two main CEI types: Energy Communities (ECs) and Collective Targeted Actions (CTAs), across different dimensions including participant demographics, motivations, barriers, behavioral outcomes, and internal diversity of engagement. Findings reveal distinct motivation factors, participation patterns and behavioral changes. EC participants display broader, value-driven engagement encompassing both technical actions and lifestyle shifts. CTA participants engage more instrumentally, focusing on specific project goals with limited lifestyle transformation. While ECs face higher institutional and procedural barriers, CTAs offer easier entry but may produce limited engagement. Within ECs, a clustering analysis based on mean self-reported behavioral change scores identifies three profiles (Low-Engagement Members, Technically Driven, and Lifestyle Transformers), illustrating different participation and behavioral changes. Policy frameworks should therefore support a diverse ecosystem of CEIs, recognizing CTAs as entry points and ECs as catalysts for deeper transformation. Reducing participation barriers, tailoring engagement strategies, and embedding energy justice considerations are essential for an inclusive and equitable energy transition. ... Read more

Achieving the European Union’s vision of climate neutrality by 2050 dictates the need to transform the role that citizens can play in decarbonizing the energy system. Yet, “which citizens to involve in this process,” “when to involve them,” and “how to do so fairly and effectively,” are questions that still remain unclear to both experts and policymakers. Energy citizenship has been discussed as a concept that has the potential to galvanize the public for the energy transition. This potential has yet to be fulfilled, as there is a need to connect theory and concepts to the realities, challenges, and opportunities of the lives of citizens, under diverse circumstances. In this perspective, we argue that the concept of energy citizenship and its potential for contributing to low carbon transitions should be studied within a research framework that aims to produce transformative knowledge. We also introduce such a new transdisciplinary framework for creating transformative knowledge to explore and address questions relevant to the concept of energy citizenship. Our framework aims to produce knowledge that can be used to mobilize decarbonization actions for both individuals and collectives, by: (i). integrating different scales of analysis and action, i.e., at individual, collective, and national/ regional/ global levels, (ii). reconceptualizing the role of research and researchers, and finally, (iii). striving to be inclusive in a meaningful and innovative way. ... Read more