Experiencing citizen deliberation over energy infrastructure siting: a mixed method evaluative study

Moving beyond information provision towards greater citizen deliberation in the siting of energy infrastructures has the potential to increase energy justice. This chapter addresses the ways that communities engage with local proposals to site high voltage overhead transmission lines. It evaluates the experience of citizens that took part in a two-day deliberative engagement workshop that was instigated by the authors, as part of a research project, in a town in South West England directly affected by a power-line siting proposal. The chapter presents G. Rowe and L. J. Frewer's typology of engagement types, identified by the flow of information occurring between the parties and by its significance in decision-making processes. It focuses on one form of participation: deliberative engagement. This method provides citizens with opportunities to learn about the issues at stake, to question experts and to discuss potential outcomes, enabling informed opinions and the voicing of those opinions by citizens within a particular decision-making context.