Mutual Learning Exercises (MLEs) for collaborative problem framing: socio-economic participation and benefit in renewable energy infrastructure in Europe

Abstract

This paper documents and examines the use of Mutual Learning Exercises (MLEs) as a methodology to bring diverse stakeholders together to explore and exchange best practices associated with the development of renewable energy infrastructure in Europe, via mutual exposure of views and experiences, expectations, and concerns around the energy transition. MLEs are an innovative methodology being piloted within the UNIC European University Centre for City Futures under ‘UNIC CityLabs’, a large-scale pan-European Change Laboratory that facilitates city-engaged learning and research. Through MLEs, this paper outlines the viability of a pan-European MLE for problem framing on shared challenges regarding just transitions in emergent policy, and highlights the diversity of approaches to citizen involvement in renewable energy infrastructure developments. We recommend thinking in terms of distributive, procedural, and participatory justice to move beyond the status-quo and notional justice narratives, with innovative methodologies recognised as key for collaborative procedural arrangements.