The article presents an analysis of the use of Facebook on the over 400-day-long anti-fracking protest by farmers in the village of Zurawlow in Poland against the global corporation Chevron. Analysis of this case study was used to discuss the deliberative potential of social media and their power in countering hegemonic discourse and providing visibility in the public sphere to actors and arguments marginalized or excluded by the traditional media. The results discuss Facebook's potential for mobilizing and providing identity while emphasizing the problem of visibility in the public sphere, which was key to the inclusion of discourse in public debate. Harnessing emotions and legitimizing minority interests helped create counter-power, while polarization and "homophile acts" against deliberation geared toward arriving at an agreement.

A consortium benchmarking (CB) approach was used to conduct a study on development mechanisms and best practices for Collective Action Initiatives (CAIs) in the energy sector. National research teams (NRTs) were created in six European countries (Belgium, Estonia, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain) each of which consisted of approximately five CAIs, as well as other stakeholders, governing bodies, and academic researchers. In total, 32 CAIs served as case studies. Each of the NRTs co-created research questions and methodologies to address the issues relevant to the case study CAIs. The results were then synthesized with respect to the dimensions of CAI mobilization (alignment of interests and engagement, organization and governance, resources, external actors and institutions, and policy and regulation) and how they contribute to the development and proliferation of CAIs. From the empirical findings, we reflect on the usefulness of the CB approach as a tool for engagement in research and derive recommendations for how CAIs can be better supported. We find that the CB approach was effective at engaging the CAIs in the research and strengthening their networks. Such networks, as well as collaboration with external actors, are vital for the success of CAIs through assisting with specialized skill sets, developing strategies for attracting a representative and diverse membership base, for securing financing, and for gaining political and social legitimacy. These networks can provide critical support to CAIs to navigate the dimensions of mobilization and allowing for the CAI to flourish.

The article presents an analysis of the use of Facebook on the over 400-day-long anti-fracking protest by farmers in the village of Żurawlów in Poland against the global corporation Chevron. Analysis of this case study was used to discuss the deliberative potential of social media and their power in countering hegemonic discourse and providing visibility in the public sphere to actors and arguments marginalized or excluded by the traditional media. The results discuss Facebook's potential for mobilizing and providing identity while emphasizing the problem of visibility in the public sphere, which was key to the inclusion of discourse in public debate. Harnessing emotions and legitimizing minority interests helped create counter-power, while polarization and “homophile acts” against deliberation geared toward arriving at an agreement.

Numerous case studies show that citizens engage in various ways in renewable and low carbon energy projects, thereby contributing to the sustainable energy transition. To date, however, a systematic and cross-country database on citizen-led initiatives and projects is lacking. By performing a major compilation and reviewing copious data sources from websites to official registries, we provide a Europe-wide inventory with over 10,000 initiatives and 16,000 production units in 29 countries, focusing on the past 20 years. Our data allow cross-country statistical analysis, supporting the elicitation of empirical insights capable of extending beyond the perspective of single case studies. Our data also align with ongoing efforts to implement two EU Directives that aim at strengthening the active role of citizens in the energy transition. While the focus of our data collection is on Europe, the data and methodology can contribute to the global analysis of citizen-led energy action.

We confront empirical data on citizen-led renewable energy capacities in Poland with results obtained from a meta-theoretical, empirical analysis of the national energy system. We elicit and rank essential disabling and enabling factors that explain the current low level of citizen energy in Poland. Altogether, we estimate the contributions of individual and collective prosumers as amounting to about 3.2 GW, with PV installations contributing more than 90%. Most activities are rather recent and come from individual prosumers. The factors with the greatest explanatory power are connected with decades of a rigid, centralized Polish energy system going hand in hand with social, regulatory, and technical lock-ins. Strikingly, factors connected with the heritage of, and transition from, the socialist period are less important, but they do explain why substantially more contributions originate from individuals compared to collective prosumers. Our results show that the currently rather small size of citizen-installed renewable capacities and the modest number of collective initiatives in Poland are due to several barriers. This paper summarizes them and provides a novel scientific method of ranking enabling and disabling factors. This approach might be helpful for policymakers and social actors, seeking an answer to the perspectives of development of citizen-installed renewable energy capacities in Poland and other former Eastern Bloc countries.

Energy communities (ECs), intended as collective action initiatives in the energy field involving citizens’ participation, have been gaining relevance for the past decades as an alternative way to organize the energy chain to challenge the incumbent system. With Europe’s recently adopted Clean Energy Package, ECs found a formal recognition by the European Union as potential actors of the transition of the energy system towards a wider and more decentralized use of renewable sources. Although the potential role of ECs in the transition is therefore hardly questionable, a thorough comprehension of the enabling factors that might foster their diffusion and scaling up is still lacking. Through a comparative analysis of the evolutionary trajectories in six EU countries regarding their energy systems, their regulatory frameworks and their historical evolution of ECs, namely through the example of cooperative models, this paper aims at providing some preliminary evidence about the factors and dynamics that seem to have played, and may play, a role in hampering or facilitating EC model diffusion. Attention is therefore specifically paid to three dimensions of analysis referring to: the energy mix and market structure; the institutional and policy landscape; the wider social attitudes towards environmental issues and cooperation among citizens. In addition to providing a wide comparison of different EU countries, the paper shows that the historical evolution pathways have to be carefully taken into account to understand what might trigger ECs exploitation in the EU.

This paper provides novel additional evidence on the characteristics of Collective Action Initiatives (CAIs), investigating their role within the European energy sector. It analyses and presents results of a survey administered in six European countries: the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Poland, Estonia, and Spain. CAIs are studied in light of four key dimensions, those being their creation dynamics, the way they are organized, financed, and the activities they undertake. The results presented are also interpreted to reflect on their role as drivers of social innovation (SI) within energy transition in Europe. The analysis shows that the contribution of CAIs to the energy transition has a much wider scope than the development of energy projects and provision of energy services. CAIs are intrinsically socially innovative models of implementation as characterised by a strong level of citizen involvement and participation. Moreover, they have a potential multi-level role in the energy transition, from the technological and social perspectives. Indeed, alongside traditional energy activities, our results show that CAIs are evolving and expanding towards socially innovative activities, raising awareness on environmental issues, promoting citizens’ mobilization, and fostering social inclusion.