Youth participation in the energy transition

Abstract

In 2015, due to decentralisations in the social domain, municipalities became the key public authorities for youth participation in the Netherlands (RAND Europe, 2021). One year later 66% had made youth participation a policy goal, while 18% was planning to. At that time most municipalities involved young people to some extend in their policy-making, but were dissatisfied with the results and expressed a need for tools (Mak, Gilsing & Wróblewska, 2016). In 2020, despite considerable effort, the dissatisfaction had not changed (Movisie, 2020).

This thesis aims to design a new approach that allows youngsters aged 14-17 to structurally participate in municipal policy- and decision-making, in the context of the energy transition. The energy transition, which refers to the transfer from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the Netherlands with 95-100% in 2050 (RIVM, n.d.), is seen as the largest strategic challenge for municipalities and one of the main societal challenge of our time (Ebskamp & Verbraak, 2019). Municipalities ask Citisens, an organisation specialised in reaching and involving (adult) citizens and this project’s client, ever more frequently if they can support them in involving young people in shaping this transition. This project is their first step in exploring this new market.

Three methods characterize the project approach. Frame creation, a method well-suited for the open, networked, complex and dynamic problems of today, provides the main structure to the project (Dorst, 2015, p. 73). Within the structure of Frame creation, the project adopts a participatory approach, involving 163 stakeholders and experts in 15 co-creation sessions throughout the project. Besides bringing in new perspectives, giving stakeholders a voice in the design and building stakeholder support (Boeijen et al., 2020, p. 61), these co-creation sessions all generate insights on collaborating with the stakeholders in a Research through Design approach. While most co-creation sessions use prototypes or artefacts to generate new knowledge, the sessions themselves can also be seen as prototypes for collaboration (Stappers & Giaccardi, 2017).

Following an in-depth analysis of the challenge, this thesis creates an overview of frontrunners that have a new and promising approach to (youth) participation and/or involving people in climate issues. Looking at common factors of these frontrunners, four themes emerge: equity, ownership, collaboration and action. Based on these themes, several new frames to approach youth participation are developed. The final design, Design your dream places, is based on the frame Holacracy.

Design your dream places involves all youngsters through guest lessons at schools and facilitates them to create their own, sustainable dream places in the municipality. It allows everyone in the municipality to vote on their favourite place, and encourages the municipality and youngsters to collaborate on next steps. The final design was tested and evaluated during a pilot session with key stakeholders, yielding encouraging results while showing the importance of testing it in a real-life setting with actual follow-up. Finally, an implementation and integration plan was created to envision next steps for the project.