UKERC Co-Director and Observatory Lead Jason Chilvers, alongside Danny Otto (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research) and Karolina Trdlicova (University of Nottingham) have published a new article in the journal Energy Research & Social Science, entitled “A synthetic review of the trust-participation nexus: Towards a relational concept of trust in energy system transformations to net zero”.
In this article, they analyse how studies of two decarbonisation technologies – namely carbon capture and storage (CCS) and wind energy – conceptualise trust and approach the relation between trust and participation. In a systematic review of 97 journal articles, they investigate how trust has been defined and conceptualised and how the relationship between participation processes and trust-building has been established.
The review findings show that trust has mainly been approached through a narrow theoretical lens, primarily as a key factor for gaining acceptance for specific technology projects. In this dominant instrumental framing participation serves as a means to gain trust or overcome distrust. How trust emerges, transforms or erodes, therefore, remains unclear beyond rationalistic assumptions on the role of actors, information provision or participation processes.
Drawing on the literature analysis, the authors propose a new theoretical framework for trust and its relation to participation. This ‘networks of trust’ approach linked with an ecologies of participation perspective is based on sociological theory and relational perspectives in science and technology studies, enabling a broader understanding of the trust-participation nexus that goes beyond narrow acceptance-based approaches.
The paper can be accessed here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629623002001
The paper can be cited as follows: Otto, D., Chilvers, J., & Trdlicova, K. (2023). A synthetic review of the trust-participation nexus: Towards a relational concept of trust in energy system transformations to net zero. Energy Research & Social Science, 101, 103140.
This work was partly funded by the research project: “TrustZero. Trust in Technologies for a Zero Carbon Future” funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering (UKDE\100008). Jason Chilvers also acknowledges support from UK Energy Research Centre Phase 4 funding (EPSRC grant reference EP/S029575/1).