Understanding the role of digitalization and social media on energy citizenship

Abstract

The digitalisation of the energy domain can bring forth numerous aspects of the energy transition that can boost the emergence of energy citizenship, information sharing, and improved decision-making processes. However, this is premised on citizens being able to make sense of (digital) information. Hence, this paper proposes a link between energy informatics and energy citizenship via energy literacy, considering the cognitive and affective aspects of energy literacy and their relation to behaviour and action. By doing so, this paper aims to understand how the use of energy-related information and social media within five different case studies from the GRETA project can impel energy citizenship. This paper approaches this rationale through different means: (a) structured interviews to understand how citizens understand and make use of energy information within the case studies; (b) topic modelling on the content of those interviews to identify common factors that might spur on hinder behaviour change towards energy citizenship; and (c) social media content analysis to identify key energy-related topics of discussions among citizens around the globe and assess the role of social media as a tool for energy citizenship. As a result, this paper identified some key takeaways to improve the delivery of energy-related information to energy citizens for enhanced energy citizenship. These takeaways allow to conclude that it is fundamental to surpass the formal boundaries of techno-economic constructs and start addressing qualitative/subjective constructs (e.g., emotions, affections, and feelings) to foster energy citizenship. Also, these takeaways could be translated into social mechanism principles in the design of frontend energy-related digital platforms for improved end-user interactions and energy citizenship. Finally, this paper recognised the need to incentivise energy citizens to use social media for consuming energy-related information, and the need to formulate coordinated and coherent response strategies for disseminating energy-related information.