Rights or resources? Local actor roles in ‘participation’ and ‘co-creation’ in wind energy transitions

Abstract

Co-creation has been heralded as a potential solution to the often controversial implementation of renewable energy projects. In this paper, we therefore investigate how such co-creation processes work in practice. We present a case study of an onshore utility-scale wind power project in Denmark that developed into a nexus of interaction among a range of actors seeking to materialize their preferred configuration of the project. By applying situational analysis, the paper demonstrates how citizens can assume different roles when engaging in co-creation and participation respectively. While the co-creation situation allows actors to become involved in new ways, it also produces tension with regard to other participatory formats employed in the governance of wind power projects. Local actors engaging in co-creation were able to shape the project more directly and materially than citizens involved in the standard procedural spaces typically offered in wind-energy transitions. However, the co-creation process did not manage to include all local perspectives and local citizens who did not engage with the co-creation format, but resorted to the standard procedural spaces of ‘hearings,’ making them feel increasingly marginalized during the process. Consequently, whether co-creation is a ‘better’ form of participation depends on the perspective one adopts.