Collective Action Initiatives as a Tool for a Peaceful Energy Transition

In recent years, collective action initiatives in the energy field, such as energy communities and cooperatives, have been gaining relevance both in the policy and in the social research domains as primary actors of energy transition. In terms of policies, they represent a primary solution to engage and empower citizens in order to expand their role in the design and implementation of energy transition strategies. In terms of research, they have become one of the most prominent objects of investigation for those social scientists mostly concerned with the climate crisis and interested in investigating its dynamics and interactions with the current socio-economic model as well as in exploring potential solutions. In fact, hundreds of articles have been published in recent years, all having aimed to investigate the way in which energy communities and cooperatives arise from civil society and, at the same time, their contribution not only to energy transition but also to the mechanisms through which they seem able to trigger wider forms of social innovation