Power and participation in energy planning conflicts. How Copenhagen’s climate plan went up in smoke. Abstract for 13. nationale konference i Dansk AktionsforskningsNetværk (DAN)

I propose to present dilemmas and reflections from my ongoing (since 2021) PhD project ‘Democratic energy transitions’. The project is inspired by action research and guided by Brazilian popular educator Paolo Freire’s thinking about the connection between understanding and changing the ways things are (Freire & Macedo, 1998). I explore the agency of renewable energy activists, their learning processes and capacity building, and how they challenge and overcome institutional barriers to energy democracy. The project is change-oriented and seeks to facilitate an exchange of experiences between activists and academia with an aim to mutually expand capacities. The purpose is to better understand the potential for democratizing Europe’s clean energy transition and to create opportunity structures for energy democracy activists.