JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
The submission of new items to CORA is currently unavailable due to a repository upgrade. For further information, please contact cora@ucc.ie. Thank you for your understanding.
Full text restriction information:Access to this article is restricted until 12 months after publication by request of the publisher.
Restriction lift date:2020-05-10
Citation:Lennon, B., Dunphy, N., Gaffney, C., Revez, A., Mullally, G. and O’Connor, P. (2019) 'Citizen or consumer? Reconsidering energy citizenship', Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, doi: 10.1080/1523908X.2019.1680277
The transition to more sustainable energy systems has set about redefining the social roles and responsibilities of citizens. Implicit in this are expectations around participation, though the precise contours of what this might mean remain open. Debates around the energy transition have been skewed towards a normative construct of what it means to be a ‘good citizen’, the parameters for which are shaped by predetermined visions of statist and/or market-driven determinations of the energy systems of the future. This article argues that concepts such as ‘energy citizen’ are co-opted to reflect popular neoliberal discourses, and ignore crucial questions of unequal agency and access to resources. Paradoxically, official discourses that push responsibility for the energy transition onto the ‘citizen-as-consumer’ effectively remove agency from citizens, leaving them largely disconnected and disempowered. Consequently, energy citizenship needs to be reconceptualised to incorporate more collective and inclusive contexts for action. Considering how much energy consumption occurs in (traditionally female) domestic spheres, do conventional notions of citizenship (especially with regards to its associated rights and duties) need to be recalibrated in order for the concept to be usefully applied to the energy transition?
This website uses cookies. By using this website, you consent to the use of cookies in accordance with the UCC Privacy and Cookies Statement. For more information about cookies and how you can disable them, visit our Privacy and Cookies statement