Over the course of the last week, together with Thomas Verbeek and Odilia van der Valk, we conducted a series of focus groups with communities who are less engaged in sustainability transition policies in Groningen Province. The research was part of the Horizon Europe DUST project (dustproject.eu), investigating citizen participation in such policies in regions that are highly vulnerable to the transition away from fossil fuels extraction and energy-intensive industries, such as Groningen, Norrbotten, Lusatia or Silesia. We conducted two online focus groups with youth from across the Province, and two physical ones in Oude Pekela, a beautiful but also one of the more peripheral areas in Groningen Province that struggles from demographic decline and a host of socio-economic challenges. Transition towards renewables in this area is happening literally at people’s doorstep and at times at dizzying speed and without obvious benefits for the local communities, with massive solar parks replacing farms, right next to the gas extraction sites which are being closed down. The sessions were a real ‘eye-opener’ in terms of understanding the factors behind lack of willingness or capacity to participate among these communities in ‘left-behind places’, feeling deeply neglected by regional, national and European policy-makers; and of how this neglect drives discontent and disillusionment with democracy.
Marcin Dąbrowski 