Exploring diverse forms of public engagement with energy systems and transitions in Cornwall, UK

This research aims to uncover how citizen's engagements with energy systems emerge and evolve over time. The project recognises that people enact multiple forms of citizenship with energy systems; a mother concerned about energy usage at home, may also work in a factory that manufactures parts for energy infrastructure, and volunteer at a community centre that provides 'warm spaces' to counter energy poverty.

Existing public engagement often focuses on isolated aspects (e.g. engagement with wind farm development or domestic energy use. This research adopts an "ecologies of participation" approach to critically observe the interdependence of multiple participatory practices and interactions across energy systems. The project is novel in creating a detailed, longitudinal, place-based investigation of public engagements with energy.

Generating new, in-depth, data will provide evidence for energy transition planning that is more sensitive to the complexities of citizen engagement and recognises how this will impact publics in different ways. Overall, this contribution aims to inform the development of energy transitions that are fair and equitable for citizens. Using a novel methodology that combines Deliberative Mapping (DM) and Longitudinal Profile (LP) techniques, the research will address the following questions:

1. How are citizens implicated in energy systems and how do they conceptualise these engagements over time?

2. What are the implications of appraising diverse energy engagements in Cornwall, for broader energy transition decision making?

3. How does a longitudinal, multi-method, approach to mapping diverse energy engagements of citizens enable new ways of thinking about public engagement and the appraisal of energy futures?