Project

The INTEGER project responds to the challenge of how to design political participation processes in a way that appeals to a more diverse population, with a focus on young people in the energy and climate transition.

Political participation can play a crucial role in accelerating and ensuring the success of transformation processes. By actively involving broad segments of the population, it can help increase positive perceptions and acceptance within society. However, current participation practices in the energy transition are criticized for being too localized or insufficiently integrated at higher levels - be it across sectors, departments or stakeholder groups.

The INTEGER project aims to shed light on the dimension of socio-political acceptance, focusing on young people's societal attitudes towards the energy transition. In particular, it addresses the critical issue of "meta-governance" - the lack of an overarching political and societal framework to guide large-scale transformation processes such as the energy transition.

Based on an empirical analysis of existing participation processes, the aim of the project is to design an integrated participation approach for the energy transition at the socio-political level. Participation processes can make a significant contribution to increasing the overall social acceptance and acceptability of policy measures. However, existing participation formats are often disconnected from each other and rarely take into account the interaction between governance levels and energy sectors.

Using an interdisciplinary approach that draws on insights from political science, socio-psychology, and communication science, the project identifies, categorizes, and evaluates current participation processes at the federal and state levels in various energy sectors in Germany. On the basis of the findings, a participation concept will be developed that integrates sectoral and governance levels and that can provide guidance to political and social actors on how to design successful political participation of young people in the energy system transformation.

01.10.2022 to 31.12.2024

• IZES gGmbH - Institut für Zukunftsenergie- und Stoffstromsysteme
• Agentur für Erneuerbare Energien

INTEGER - Agentur für Erneuerbare Energien (unendlich-viel-energie.de)

Interview von Dr. Uta Burghard mit dem BDEW zum Thema Beteiligung und Energiewende