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Using participatory research to address fairness in the energy transition

People grouped around a colourful mindmap on a whiteboard in an office
29 January 2025

Distributing the costs and benefits of the energy transition equitably is key to building broad public support and achieving rapid, meaningful change.

At the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE), we employ a range of social research methods to understand how to ensure fair and equal participation in the shift towards net zero.

Recently, we’ve been using more ‘participatory research’ – a flexible and insightful approach for investigating exclusion and vulnerability in the energy transition. This blog outlines what participatory research is and gives examples of how we’ve applied it at CSE through two unique research projects.

What is participatory research?

In social research, you tend to have a research question about a particular group of people – and by conducting research about them they become the focus of your enquiry.  Participatory research is a different approach which aims to empower research participants as collaborators in the process, rather than as passive subjects.

Instead of centring the researcher’s knowledge, participatory research recognises and values the voices and ways of knowing of the research participants, positioning them as experts through their first-hand experience of the research topic. In practice, this usually means directly involving participants in the research process.

This could include supporting participants to help:

Understanding household vulnerability around low carbon technologies

During the Guidelight project, we explored how different households were taking up and using low carbon technologies (LCTs) such as heat pumps and solar panels in their homes. We wanted to understand the needs of these households and what could be done to make their uptake and use of the technologies easier.

A key element of our participatory approach was the establishment of a ‘Community Research Group’. This group consisted of six people who were able to share their direct experience undergoing a LCT retrofit. We consulted them throughout the project to inform the direction of our research methods and we sought their expertise on increasing uptake of LCTs. This helped to understand the different types of experiences and challenges people faced when using LCTs and what solutions would be useful to them.

As well as our overarching framework, we also trialled a specific method – photo-diaries – which we thought would be well-suited to a participatory approach. Participants used a WhatsApp ‘diary’ to capture notes, pictures and videos of their everyday energy use and interaction with their low-carbon technologies. Although we gave some helpful prompts along the way, participants had the agency to shape their diaries according to what they felt was important about their retrofit experience, giving them responsibility to produce data which directly fed into the project.

Using community researchers and co-design to explore more inclusive community energy

For our Challenging Power project, we examined the accessibility of community energy co-operatives in London – and why people from certain communities are under-represented. Recruiting two community researchers, Nasri and Ruth, was at the centre of our participatory approach. The first few months of the project were spent training them in participatory research skills and working together to design our research in a way they felt would work in their respective communities.

Having this time at the start of the project and a funder who was happy to support this was vital so that we could consider the intersectionality of the communities we were working with and build a good working relationship that shared power with Nasri and Ruth as community members. It also gave us space to reflect on and refine our process. These three things were all crucial elements of our participatory approach.

Our data collection, led by Nasri and Ruth, centred around some co-design workshops. Co-design is a tool often used in participatory research that focuses on bringing people together to create a product or solution. Through two co-design sessions in London, we connected with groups who we knew were currently under-represented in community energy co-operatives. The focus of the sessions was on sharing power and working together to make decisions, this was supported by Nasri and Ruth as community representatives leading the session.

It was helpful to use creative approaches to engage participants with a new topic, as well as offering practical support to help them attend the workshops. More detail on how you could use similar methods to us in this project can be found in the project toolkit we published here.

Using social research to assess vulnerability in the energy transition

These two examples illustrate how participatory research can be applied in diverse ways to inform understanding of exclusion and vulnerability across the energy sector. But these methods are not without their challenges, and we’ve learnt a lot along the way. Here are some tips to consider if you’re planning your own participatory research:

  1. Be mindful of timeframes – It takes time to build meaningful relationships with research participants and work together through the research process. Make sure this is factored into your project from the start.
  2. Consider who you’re working with – Be sure to provide your participants with any information, training and practical tools to help them participate equally. Also remember that some people may not have the time or desire to take part in participatory research, so you need to find ways to make participating as accessible as possible.
  3. Consulting early in the research design phase can help determine the most appropriate route for engagement and capacity building. Also having a representative ‘steering group’ of community members can help to guide the process.
  4. Learn as you go – Reflexivity is a key part of good participatory practice. Build in opportunities to reflect and evaluate how the research process is going to help maximise its effectiveness.

Participatory methods are well suited to the work we do at CSE because they help our work to centre fairness and inclusion in our energy transition. By directly engaging people who are at risk of being left behind we can co-create solutions that distribute the benefits and burdens of the evolving energy system more fairly.

As we continue to explore participatory social research in the energy landscape, we recognise that this is a process of continued learning. We welcome further thoughts, suggestions or feedback because a fair, inclusive transition is a shared responsibility that requires diverse perspectives and lived experiences. It’s only by embracing fairness that can we unlock the public support needed to drive rapid, meaningful climate action and transition to net zero.

CSE is recognised as an Independent Research Organisation by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

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