Mapping diverse stakeholder imaginaries: Using Participatory GIS to capture the critical-spatial dimensions of social acceptance

The social acceptance of low carbon energy transitions is a dynamic process concerning different low carbon energy technologies (LCETs), differentially empowered stakeholders (socio-political, market, and community), and deployment processes occurring across different spatialities and scales (international, national, regional, local). Critical-spatial approaches to social acceptance seek to capture the underlying multi-scalar socio-spatial beliefs (spatial and public imaginaries) held by different coalitions of stakeholders, and which are invoked to legitimate, or contest, the ‘acceptability’ of LCET deployment. In this chapter, we demonstrate the suitability of Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS) as a long-standing critical-spatial method to capture, manage, and display these different socio-spatial beliefs, enabling us to disentangle these overlapping interests and to reveal where, how, and why issues of contestation arise between stakeholders operating across, and between, different scales. In this chapter, we reflect upon our experiences of utilising critical-spatial approaches and PGIS across two interrelated research projects in Sweden, offering important considerations and advice for employing such an approach in the future. We conclude by suggesting that critical-spatial approaches combined with PGIS have the potential to ensure democratic legitimacy within energy transitions by drawing out diverse forms of socio-spatial knowledge from relevant stakeholder groups.