The European Union (EU) is committed to achieving a just and inclusive energy transition. Positioning citizen participation is an integral practice of this goal. The expectation for increased citizen engagement in energy initiatives has been conceptualised as energy citizenship. However, despite publicly committing to encouraging active, bottom-up participation, top-down, state-led approaches to promoting energy citizenship have been criticised for constraining citizen agency, often inadvertently leaving individuals feeling disempowered in their contributions to energy transitions. This paper examines a foundational EU policy document, Clean Energy for All Europeans (CEFAE), to unveil how the EU conceives the role of citizens within the energy transition. The findings suggest that the EU's conceptualisation of energy citizenship is shaped by liberal and neoliberal assumptions about citizenship itself. This is reflected in the frequent reference to citizens as ‘consumer(s)’ and the implicit framing of citizenship according to these democratic conceptions within the directives and regulations used for the implementation of the energy transition. Underlying conceptions of citizenship establish assumptions about what forms of citizen participation are considered suitable and appropriate in conceptualisations and operationalisations of energy citizenship in situ. By comparing the EU's articulation of energy citizenship with the three classical dimensions of democratic citizenship—membership, basic rights, and participation—this study identifies the underlying narrative of citizenship in the document and uncovers tensions that limit the potential for meaningful citizen engagement. In doing so, it contributes to the evolving discourse on energy citizenship by advocating for a more inclusive, citizen-led approach to the recognition of energy citizens and the definition of their agency.

Scenario planning has become a common approach within transportation research to understand the varying impacts of transportation planning. By examining a range of uncertainties, scenarios can be developed that enable an exploration of alternative future visions of the world. Whilst there has been growing concern over the equity impacts of transport investments, particularly in relation to accessibility of opportunities, equity of access considerations remain an underdeveloped area within transportation scenarios research. This has tremendous consequences for realising socially just mobility futures. Utilising the case study of Cape Town, in South Africa several transport scenarios are collectively developed through stakeholder engagement by analysing a number of parameters that have been identified as significant operational factors and policy levers. We develop representative urban network models for each scenario and evaluate equity of access to places of employment using a comparative equity framework. We find that a continuation of past trends leads to greater inequities, whereas alternative visions focused on the adoption of integrated transport and cycling indicate potential to decrease inequities. Overall the study highlights how the adoption of accessibility focused planning is not only an engineering problem, but a societal problem related to institutional capacity, trust, community agency and political vision

This paper explores how individual and collective heating systems influence citizen agency and energy justice in the heat transition. Drawing on interviews with stakeholders knowledgeable about or involved in these systems across eight European countries, we examine how different types of heating systems influence energy decision-making capabilities and justice outcomes. Combining the Energy Justice Decision-Making Framework with the Capability Approach, we analyze differences in availability, affordability, due process, good governance, sustainability, equity, and responsibility.
Our findings reveal that collective heating systems, while limiting individual autonomy, offer advantages in efficiency, affordability, and environmental sustainability. Their centralized management and economies of scale may support the integration of local renewable energy sources and can protect vulnerable populations from energy poverty, thus advancing distributive justice. However, realizing these benefits requires transparent governance and citizen-inclusive processes.
In contrast, individual heating systems provide greater autonomy and flexibility, allowing households to tailor solutions to their preferences and financial circumstances. Yet this decentralization can lead to operational inefficiencies and fragmented efforts, which may slow down the pace of the heat transition. Additionally, high upfront costs for sustainable technologies may exacerbate inequalities, particularly for low-income households.
This study identifies justice gaps across both system types and highlights the trade-offs between autonomy and equity. We argue for institutional adaptation and regulatory innovation to enable capability-sensitive, socio-technical arrangements that support inclusive, sustainable heat transitions.

To accelerate the energy transition and achieve the needed large-scale transformation to address climate change, different barriers including lock-ins and path dependencies, incumbent power structures and changing individual and collective norms, values, and behaviors around energy need to be addressed. In the face of these challenges, citizens are beginning to play a bigger role in the transformation of the energy system. For example, they are becoming prosumers (energy consumers who also produce energy) and are increasingly engaging in collective energy actions, including taking part in energy communities. In the latter instance, collective investment and consumption decisions are made together, and norms, understanding and behavior towards energy are shaped collectively. To better understand the roles that individuals and groups can play in confronting the challenges of the energy transition, we make use of and adapt Ostrom’s socio-ecological systems (SES) framework to analyze past examples of collective actions and to delve deeper into the causes and catalysts of collective actions. We show how this framework can be used to analyze collective actions across time and contexts, focusing on connecting individual and group behavior with changing societal norms and the corresponding barriers to change. By applying the adapted SES framework as a lens to analyze historical examples of collective actions that have resulted in a widespread transformation in social norms and structures, we identify similarities and differences between these case studies and the current energy transition. Confronting incumbents and the challenge of changing social norms and behaviors are among the similarities, but the specific tactics used to limit incumbents’ powers and the actions taken to influence the norms and behaviors differ. Lastly, we determine the key actors that influenced social and behavioral change, as one of the main outcomes of the analysis.

This piece elaborates on a ‘new way of thinking’ (Einstein, 1946) that would contribute to overcoming the challenge of climate change and its impacts. This ‘new way’ will have us go beyond using facts and figures alone to persuade and cajole. It will have us stretching our moral imagination (Johnson, 2016) and empathising with people very different from ourselves. It will have us investing in processes of exchange which support the co-creation of knowledge and the future we want together.

This playbook aims to take you step by step to design, implement and reflect on an initiative of your own related to the energy transition.

This open access book develops a deeper understanding of an increasingly applied term across policy cycles and academic discourses, 'energy citizenship'. It provides the reader with five distinct chapters, with each in turn examining a specific aspect of the concept and how it has manifested in public discourses.

This Special Focus highlights the potential of transdisciplinary research and learning to confront the complexity of the challenges facing society today. By serving as a bridge between science, practice and society, transdisciplinarity can be a means to help foster collaboration between diverse actors, question existing paradigms of knowledge co-production and build pathways towards transformation

We develop and apply the concept of equitable knowledge co-production (EKC) by proposing a reflexive framework to support inclusive stakeholder engagement with diverse knowledge-holders. This framework is built on the authors’ experiences of leading three ongoing Horizon 2020 projects, and its goal is to contribute to the realisation of epistemic and recognition justice in the context of large-scale research and innovation projects by raising awareness of how knowledge co-production is carried out during the project proposal and implementation phases.

Citizens are expected to play a significant role to the current energy transition in Europe, such as through prosumerism and collective initiatives for energy efficiency. While there are many platforms for domestic energy analytics and for engaging citizens and transition stakeholders on energy topics, context-specific information is frequently lacking. This article outlines the development of an Interactive Policy Platform that aims to provide contextualized, impact-driven, and ready-to-use information on the role of citizen initiatives in the energy and low-carbon transition in Europe. Specifically, it will help researchers, policymakers, and citizens to explore different dimensions of energy citizenship, understand the decarbonization potentials of diverse clusters of citizens, and identify the conditions under which citizen-led energy initiatives are currently operating. The Platform will be co-designed together with a sample of its future users, ensuring the usability of its interface and the relevance of the provided information. Ultimately, the Platform is envisioned to help transition stakeholders understand and support initiatives related to energy citizenship around Europe, thus contributing to the EU's promise of a just and inclusive decarbonization.

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.

In this paper, we develop and apply the concept of ‘insight discovery’ as a key competence for transdisciplinary research and learning. To address complex societal and environmental problems facing the world today, a particular expertise that can identify new connections between diverse knowledge fields is needed in order to integrate diverse perspectives from a wide range of stakeholders and develop novel solutions. The capacity for “insight discovery” means becoming aware of personal mental representations of the world and being able to shape and integrate perspectives different from one’s own. Based on experiences and empirical observations within the scope of an educational programme for Masters students, PhD candidates and post-doctoral researchers, we suggest that insights are the outcome of a learning process influenced by the collective and environment in which they are conceived, rather than instant moments of individual brilliance. The process which we describe, named the insight discovery process (IDP), is made up of five aspects. Within a group setting, a person begins with an “original mental model”, experiences an “insight trigger”, processes new information within the “liminal space”, “formulates an insight” and eventually forms an “adapted mental model”. There is a potential for incorporating such process as a fundamental competence for transdisciplinary curricula in undergraduate and graduate programmes by cultivating specific practices and safe learning environments, focused on the enquiry, exchange and integration of diverse perspectives.

Inter- and transdisciplinary research and education, as carried out by scholars trained in the West, is rooted in assumptions about the legitimacy of academic freedom, autonomy, and governance structures. What happens, however, when this type of research is undertaken in a new cultural context in which these assumptions are not self-evident? In this chapter, I explore higher education teaching, research, and governance in China from a historical perspective to answer a key guiding question of this book in this context: How are inter-and transdisciplinary research and education tied to historical notions of higher education within Chinese culture? Are they imports of recent internationalization of a globalized educational system? How are inter- and transdisciplinary approaches visible in institutes and programs that have been or are being created in China? The chapter starts with a description of past traditions in higher education in China and continues with developments that influenced the contemporary higher education system under the regime of the Chinese Communist Party. Finally, I conclude by linking these past developments with manifestations of inter- and transdisciplinarity within the contemporary system of Chinese higher education. The chapter shows that while inter- and transdisciplinarity have historical roots in a traditional notion of Chinese higher education and are beginning to take root in the contemporary system, significant barriers remain for its future development.

Real-world laboratories (RWL) aim to support transformations for sustainable urban development by producing outputs with practical and scientific relevance. To achieve these aims, the local community of which the RWL is a part should be in close collaboration from the start of a project. RWLs offer spaces for ‘thinking outside the box’ and for experimenting with new ideas through concrete interventions into the life world of the community. We provide methodological guidance for researchers on how to design interventions in RWLs that both affect change on the ground and contribute to scientific knowledge. This includes addressing issues important to local communities and generating transformation knowledge about how sustainable urban development can be actualised. We use the case of a project-based master’s course within an RWL in the city of Zurich in Switzerland to demonstrate how the use of design thinking supported the development of needs-based interventions, curbing emissions from food consumption while aiming to generate scientifically relevant output. We conclude that further improvements in methodology are needed in order to test the effectiveness of interventions. However, the outputs of the approach show its potential both for having an impact in the real world and building on existing academic concepts for advancing transformation knowledge.

In line with EU’s 2050 decarbonization agenda, the H2020 Energy Citizens for Inclusive Decarbon-ization (ENCLUDE) project aims to help the EU fulfil its promise of a just and inclusive decarboni-zation, adopting the principles of sharing and co-creating new knowledge and practices that are aimed at maximizing the number as well as the diversity of citizens and societal actors who are willing and able to contribute and take any form of action in the energy transition. Catalyzing chain reactions of decarbonization activities across the European Union will be achieved through the ENCLUDE Academy for Energy Citizen Leadership. We focus on a bottom-up approach of citizen engagement for decarbonization actions by identifying, networking and supporting local community leaders who have the intention to lead energy indicatives. A part of this support includes providing leaders with an overview of past collective actions across different contexts and time periods to help provide a historical context for current efforts towards societal transformation.
To do this, we sort through the vast and diverse literature documenting and analyzing collective actions, cutting across historical, geographical, social, and epistemological boundaries. Connecting these diverse perspectives to create a holistic understanding of the catalyzing and hindering factors of effective collective action for change, we adapt Ostrom’s Socio-Ecological Systems (SES) frame-work to analyze two historical examples of collective actions from the United States – the civil rights movement and the fall of the tobacco industry. We show that this interdisciplinary framework can be used to analyze collective actions across different time periods and contexts, focusing on different resources and subsystems that span from individual’s and in-groups’ actions and norms, to the general macroenvironment represented with various political, economic and social traits. Analyzing collective actions will ultimately provide valuable insight for initiating and sustaining collective ac-tions within the energy transition.
The analysis of the two distinctive collective actions shows the different leadership and organiza-tional style, as well as the importance of changing norms to reach social and societal change. We identify critical factors to understanding how societal transformation occurs outside of the environ-mental context and evaluate which of these factors are also relevant for decarbonization. The report ends with the practical application of this document to the upcoming ENCLUDE Academy, while the appendix contains further analysis of dozens of other collective actions.

While the importance of transdisciplinary (Td) processes as a means to address societal problems is well-established, guidance for the intentional design of stakeholder interactions to meet specific goals, under different conditions and contexts, remains less explored. We propose the concept of critical design moments (CDMs) as a lens through which to identify key processes in the design of stakeholder interactions that affect the relevance and impact of its outcomes. We demonstrate how an approach using CDMs can help to make explicit not only the goals of stakeholder interactions, but also how these goals might be met through the process design of specific activities orienting these interactions. The CDMs were identified as part of the implementation of a Td winter school for early career researchers to provide them with real-world experiences of interacting with stakeholders and local residents of a community. This work provides an approach for how Td stakeholder interactions can be designed in other Td contexts.

Wissen allein reicht nicht für eine wirkungsvolle Politik. Vielmehr braucht es Vertrauen, Partizipation und Transdisziplinarität, damit Wissenschaft relevant bleibt und Erkenntnisse in die Praxis umgesetzt werden. Dafür muss sich die Forschungswelt verändern.