Facilitating Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue and Collaboration in the Energy Transition of Municipalities through Serious Gaming
Professorship Communication, Behaviour & The Sustainable Society, Center of Expertise Energy, Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Zernikeplein 7, 9747 AS Groningen, The Netherlands
Academic Editor: Dario Padovan
Energies 2021, 14(12), 3374; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14123374
Received: 26 April 2021
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Revised: 4 June 2021
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Accepted: 7 June 2021
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Published: 8 June 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Transition and Social Innovation)
Within the EU, energy transition at the local level is embedded in a complex stakeholder network with highly interdependent actors; if these actors have to collaborate to contribute to an efficient transition, they have to initiate a dialogue about their roles and interests. A good way to achieve this goal could be via serious gaming. Scholars suggest that serious games have the potential to increase multi-stakeholder’s dialogue and collaboration on climate-change-related issues; however, empirical evidence on the effectiveness, and the process is still limited. The aim of this paper is to use the We-Energy Game as a case study to provide empirical evidence on how serious gaming could facilitate dialogue and collaboration among different stakeholders, and which specific features influence the engagement of participants with the issue. For that purpose, a qualitative analysis on feedback and observations of group discussions is conducted, together with a survey for 125 stakeholders from diverse municipalities in The Netherlands to assess what type of features influence the engagement. The study reveals that the game engages participants mostly at the cognitive level, and that key elements in this process are game design, the debriefing session, and the role of the facilitator.
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Keywords:
energy transition; serious games; stakeholders; local government; cooperation
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MDPI and ACS Style
Ouariachi, T. Facilitating Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue and Collaboration in the Energy Transition of Municipalities through Serious Gaming. Energies 2021, 14, 3374. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14123374
AMA Style
Ouariachi T. Facilitating Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue and Collaboration in the Energy Transition of Municipalities through Serious Gaming. Energies. 2021; 14(12):3374. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14123374
Chicago/Turabian StyleOuariachi, Tania. 2021. "Facilitating Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue and Collaboration in the Energy Transition of Municipalities through Serious Gaming" Energies 14, no. 12: 3374. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14123374
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