The Danish Model for Citizen Engagement in the Renewable energy Transition (DART)

Research focus

The DART project takes an alternative approach by proposing that protesters, through their interference with industrial and political interests, engage in and contribute to a broader societal debate about societal change and new forms of participatory politics.

Thus, the project defines local resistance not as being anti-government or anti-green, but rather as a venue for citizens to perform a democratic citizenship.

By adopting this approach, the research aims to achieve two main objectives: firstly, to map and analyze the reasons behind resistance and protest; and secondly, to design models that facilitate citizen engagement in democratic participatory processes.

Research purposes

In collaboration with key partners and with an interdisciplinary social scientific approach, including law, political science and anthropology, the designed model will enhance collaboration across scales. The model will thereby guide stakeholders across the green fuels value chain in creating engagement among local citizens. This will lead to three results:

1. Mitigate time consuming and costly conflicts with local citizens and interest groups
2. Provide an innovative environment for collaboration across the value chain
3. Open a public dialogue for developing an engaged and democratic citizenship within the renewable energy transition.

To reach these results, the model will operate on three levels:

1. On micro level, the model will describe barriers and drivers for citizen engagement and develop best practices and tools which will enhance the capacity of stakeholders to include citizens early in the development of renewable energy systems, thus facing their concerns and needs upfront.
2. On meso level, the model will develop structures and procedures for cross-cutting collaboration between all actors in the value chain which will provide a solid foundation for establishing productive relations, thus softening potential conflicts of interests.
3. On macro level, the model will develop recommendations for national policies and regulations which will improve levels of citizen engagement, thus creating a framework useful for policy makers.