Energy Citizenship across Europe

This open access book is intended to provoke and progress new thinking in the field of energy research for policy makers, practitioners and scholars. By drawing on a broad range of social and innovation theory insights, this book showcases the diversity of energy citizenship and opens up the concept by including multiple ‘latent’, less visible, forms of energy citizenship that also form part of the energy transition. Focusing on how energy citizenship is considered in eight countries across Europe, each of the contributions highlight the empirical variety, the geographical differences, the contextual challenges, and the socio-political histories out of which energy citizenship develops. In exploring if there are certain convergences and similarities across contexts, the collection makes a significant contribution to debates and discussions surrounding the European Energy Union.

Frances Fahy is Professor of Geography and the Director of the Ryan Institute at the University of Galway, where she leads several research teams on sustainable consumption and energy citizenship research. Frances is an environmental geographer and she has published more than 100 publications and has coordinated over 20 funded research projects including as the coordinator and lead of the Horizon 2020 project, EnergyPROSPECTS, a large scale social science research project which explored energy citizenship in Europe. A Fulbright Scholar, Frances previously served as Head of Geography at University of Galway and is the past President of the Geographical Society of Ireland.  

Edina Vadovics , with a background in environmental sciences and policy, is research director of GreenDependent Institute, a non-profit research and action organisation promoting sustainable lifestyles and multistakeholder dialogue. Edina’s research focuses on 1.5 °C lifestyles, citizenship and social innovation with the aim to connect environmental and social considerations in dozens of EU and national projects such as EnergyPROSPECTS. She is also involved in action-oriented work with citizens, communities and municipalities, and has published extensively for both audiences. She worked as an expert to the EEA, UNEP, IGES, and is a member of the SCORAI Europe steering committee.