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Energy citizenship in rural communities. Place making, third places and physical structures.

Panel: 5. Towards sustainable and resilient communities

Authors:
Berit Nilsen, NTNU Social Research, Norway
Pasi Aalto, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway
Lina Naoroz Bråten, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway

Abstract

The city is the dominating spatial entity in the green shift discourse, as measures and efforts related to densification, increased investment in public transport and micro-mobility, to mention some, are usually not developed with rural communities in mind. Rural areas in Norway experience demographics showing an older, diminishing, and often male-dominated population. On the other hand, citizens in rural places often have a strong sense of belonging, place attachment and community feeling. The distance from decision to action is short, networks are already established, and local know-how and initiative can produce contextual and fitting alternatives in the green shift.

Getting young people of all genders to stay or move back after studying is challenging as rural areas often offer a narrower spectre of job opportunities, difficulties getting affordable and up to standard housing, and meaningful leisure activities. Home, work, and leisure are often far apart and require private transport to get between.

Citizens' proximity and access to physical environments that provide quality of life and facilitate social behaviour is central to achieving the green shift, and affects citizens' travel patterns, transportation options, and overall living conditions. These informal social spaces to gather, engage and interact outside the home and workplace, are commonly referred to as ‘third spaces’, and can function as places for citizen’s participation and local democracy. By investigating opportunities to combine social spaces, such as shared neighbourhood facilities and activities, with housing and workplaces, we aim to increase awareness of energy citizenship and create more room for sustainable, low-emission lifestyles in rural areas.

The spaces that citizens use as their homes, workplaces, and social spaces are, at the same time, some of our biggest energy consumers. Globally, buildings account for approximately 40% of our total energy use. Even in a country with good building standards and well-built hydropower capacity, buildings still account for 15% of national emissions. Optimising the use of buildings has proven to be very complicated, as their intrinsic technical, cultural, social, and physiological aspects are not aligned. Utilising participatory strategies to involve local citizens, with knowledge of local potentials and challenges, is an alternative route to develop context sensitive solutions instead of externally developed one-size-fits-none.

Our study investigates context-specific measures supporting the green shift combining local competence and solutions with construction expertise and academic knowledge, establishing key enablers for local participation rather than overarching frameworks. Through participatory methods, we target age- and gender dimensions in the rural community Overhalla in Norway to develop social meeting places, new and innovative forms of housing aiding a low-emission lifestyle, including transport. In this approach, we investigate the interplay in the local community between place, architecture, and energy use.

This Norwegian Citizen Action Lab (CAL) is one of 9 CALs across Europe that put energy citizens at the core of the innovation process. The research is part of the DIALOGUES project, a Horizon 2020 funded project aiming to produce an operational concept of inclusive energy citizenship that accounts for diversity and empowers groups currently at the margins of the energy transition to take a more active role in supporting the objectives of the Energy Union. We seek to nurture the engagement necessary for citizenship to emerge and consolidate by understanding and facilitating active local participation.

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