On the challenges of empowering citizens in technological innovation matters

In order to counteract a constant global warming, the empowerment of civil society and economy are considered necessary prerequisites for the energy transition. Responsive forms of participation have to be considered in an early phase of projects and employed continuously throughout the intention. However, there are common challenges within participation processes. We illustrate a use case consisting of the implementation of technological innovations using a slow bottom-up approach. Our main thesis suggests that an active interference of social space leads to higher technology acceptance and therefore to an easier implementation of innovative technologies to increase the citizens’ quality of life. Due to the fact that our target group shows high diversity we focus on specific mediators that influence technology acceptance. Therefore, we conducted a mixed-method approach with quantitative and qualitative components. We present our main results and experiences of the first project phase in this article.