Identities, innovation, and governance: A systematic review of co-creation in wind energy transitions

Abstract

The concepts co-creation and co-production increasingly find their way into research on renewable energy development. As an innovation paradigm ‘co-creation’ is believed to produce more legitimate and inclusive innovation processes, however, in the context of energy transitions there is still no consistent understanding of what the concept means and implies. This paper investigates the links between co-creation and wind energy development to explore the (potential) role of co-creation for research and practice. We do that through an exploratory systematic review of 51 papers that refer to co-creation and co-production in relation to wind energy development. The review identifies three different understandings of co-creation in the literature, namely co-production of identities and representations, co-creation of innovation in sociotechnical systems, and co-creation as participatory governance. The three perspectives capture how co-creation comes about and how it shapes relations between actors present in the sociotechnical assemblages of wind energy development. We show how the use of the concept of co-creation suggests new roles for citizens as co-creators and co-producers of electricity and planning decisions. We subsequently discuss what these roles suggest for the understanding of participation in renewable energy development and transitions more broadly.