Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TANDEM (Transdisciplinary ANd Deliberative equity appraisal of transition policies in Energy and Mobility)
Berichtszeitraum: 2022-09-01 bis 2024-02-29
Numerous attempts of implementing transition pathways across Europe illustrate the difficulty of designing policies that combine efficient climate action and justice considerations. One reason is that the socially diverse, and thus also geographically dispersed demands and vulnerabilities of potentially affected groups do not appear as a well-structured input at any stage of the policy-making process.
In this regard, TANDEM is implementing an innovative transdisciplinary approach in five different case studies in Spain, Belgium, Finland, Poland and Austria that address controversial transition policies in energy and mobility affecting urban and rural populations. The project is designing a methodology allowing policy makers to create and implement inclusive and just transition pathways by involving potentially affected citizens, public authorities, the private sector and other relevant stakeholders. It relies on combination of accessible and complementary methods: deliberative visioning built on art-based approaches, system mapping, participatory assessment and appraisal methods.
These methods are being implemented through a series of three deliberation panels with citizens. In these panels participants are creating and deliberating on their visions, perspectives and narratives on just transition policies and defining their own criteria and interventions. This deliberation process is guiding a systemic impact assessment that will feed into individual appraisals of the interventions. Public authorities are involved in the panels to provide insights on political, social and economic factors that should be taken into consideration. Thus, through a participatory process, TANDEM aims to develop a transdisciplinary approach for identifying and analysing emerging inequalities of low-carbon transition policies, as well as co-designing socially fair and effective alternative transition pathways with stakeholders.
In this regard, TANDEM is implementing an innovative transdisciplinary approach in five different case studies in Spain, Belgium, Finland, Poland and Austria that address controversial transition policies in energy and mobility affecting urban and rural populations. The project is designing a methodology allowing policy makers to create and implement inclusive and just transition pathways by involving potentially affected citizens, public authorities, the private sector and other relevant stakeholders. It relies on combination of accessible and complementary methods: deliberative visioning built on art-based approaches, system mapping, participatory assessment and appraisal methods.
These methods are being implemented through a series of three deliberation panels with citizens. In these panels participants are creating and deliberating on their visions, perspectives and narratives on just transition policies and defining their own criteria and interventions. This deliberation process is guiding a systemic impact assessment that will feed into individual appraisals of the interventions. Public authorities are involved in the panels to provide insights on political, social and economic factors that should be taken into consideration. Thus, through a participatory process, TANDEM aims to develop a transdisciplinary approach for identifying and analysing emerging inequalities of low-carbon transition policies, as well as co-designing socially fair and effective alternative transition pathways with stakeholders.
In the RP1 a wide variety of activities were carried out in TANDEM. It started with carrying out a systematic literature review on concept/dimensions of justice/equity/equality in energy and mobility transitions. This led to the development of the “Spatio-temporal, Holistic and Inclusive Framework for Transition” (SHIFT), which is introduced to both support the identification and analysis of emerging inequalities of low-carbon transition policies, and guide the process of co-designing equitable, just and effective alternative transition pathways. The SHIFT framework extends the popular 3-tenets approach of justice by integrating further dimensions of justice and equity: recognition, distributive, procedural, spatial, restorative, intergenerational, cosmopolitan, intersectional, and cognitive justice. This activity was parallelly supported by the analysis of vulnerabilities associated with past initiatives related to energy transition policies, projects, and NGOs’ activities and context and stakeholder analysis for each case study. Story archetypes of justice narratives and personas were created for each case study. A transdisciplinary research toolkit and guide was codeveloped. This guide brought together 3 prime methods used in the TANDEM project - art based deliberative visioning, participatory system mapping and MAMCA-SIS appraisal. Scripts were prepared for implementing these methods in citizens' panel across case studies. Participants were recruited for the panels and panel 1 was organized where participatory system maps were developed with citizens focusing on relevant themes related to the concerned transition policy at each case study location.
Systematic literature review on concept/dimensions of justice/equity/equality in energy and mobility transitions showed the importance of justice concerns at multiple temporal and spatial scales - from the local to the global - and the need for improvement in democratic decision-making and participation are increasingly recognized and demanded. Nevertheless, further research is needed to gain a deeper understanding of the justice issues related to transition policies, particularly beyond the discussion of distributive and procedural justice dimensions. There is also a need for a more explicit focus on issues related to social differentiation, intersectionality, and power in the analysis of transition policy. Consequently, the analysis and design of compensatory measures for negative or undesirable effects should include intersectional aspects in order to support the inclusion of vulnerable groups, especially in the context of social inequality and vulnerability. The novel transdisciplinary research toolkit and guide produced by TANDEM showed possibility of exploring complex policy related topics by bringing together scientific and arts based methods in a citizens' panel setting. Micro-level system maps illustrating the main dynamics and likely impacts of the policies from the perspective of affected citizens were co-created through deliberative processes during panels 1. List of potential interventions to improve the system towards just transition for each case study were elicited during panels 1. Responses from panel participants showed increased understanding of impacts of concerned transition policies among participants as a result of panel activities. With sister and like minded EU funded projects just transition cluster was created. This cluster facilitated the exchange of learning among researchers and policymakers and ensured wider dissemination of project results.