In the preceding chapter, Jens Hoff argued that we are witnessing a qualitative shift in the authorities’ approach to citizen involvement in the area of climate change. The character of
the involvement is changing as more power seems to be delegated to the citizens who are encouraged to get engaged and invest more aspects of their lives in the pursuit of less CO2-
intensive lifestyles.
This chapter argues that we may need a new theoretical and methodological
framework that can take into account the complexity characterising citizen participation and engagement in the climate change problematic. Through the empirical analysis of a local climate project, ’The Climate Family Project’ in the Danish municipality of Ballerup, it will be illustrated that a turn towards the body of work collectively referred to as Science & Technology Studies (STS) will enlighten our analyses and increase our understanding of the complicated processes at work in strenghtening citizen engagement with the climate.
Actor-network theory (ANT) and post-ANT will be applied to the analysis of ’The
Climate Family Project’, while at the same time attending to the broader research question: What value might STS perspectives add to analyses of citizen participation in the policy area of climate change?