Beyond transformative community engagement: the evasion and contact zones of a European climate change project.

Nielsen, Jacob Aage Ejlerskov; Stavrianakis, Kostas; Morrison, Zoe

Abstract

This paper argues that to understand how community engagement shapes relationships between Climate Change Projects (CCPs) and communities it is necessary to examine the social spaces of contact and evasion zones. In contrast to residual modernist perspectives on community engagement that tie in with assumptions about the linear and progressive relationship between transformations, knowledge and order, the social space of contact and evasion zones are better able to capture the complex, multiple and uncertain ways that community engagements reconfigure and entrench CCP and community relationships. To explore these dynamics the paper draws on ethnographic findings from a European Union (EU) Climate Change Project on Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) to illustrate how the design, planning and implementation of two community events were shaped through frictional and generative contact zones and evasion zones characterised by disconnect, stagnation and homogeneity. We argue that the implications of these dynamics were multiple and contradictory. The content and format of the community events were generated through fractious contact zones between project members which helped facilitate community events that were controllable and minimised uncertainties. Whilst this depoliticised the events and reduced the opportunities for divergent views to be recognised, it also meant that community and CCP knowledges and relations remained static leaving project partners in the dark about community dynamics that might instigate future resistance and opposition to their activities. Furthermore, whilst these evasion zones excluded community diversity, they also allowed community members to evade potential adverse entanglements with project partners and local stakeholders.

Citation

NIELSEN, J.A.E., STAVRIANAKIS, K., and MORRISON, Z. [2025]. Beyond transformative community engagement: the evasion and contact zones of a European climate change project. Local environment [online], Latest Articles. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2025.2496167

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 4, 2025
• Online Publication Date: May 1, 2025
• Deposit Date: May 12, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: May 12, 2025
• Journal: Local environment
• Print ISSN: 1354-9839
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-6711
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2025.2496167
• Keywords: Climate change projects; Community engagement; Contact zones; Evasion zones; Social acceptance
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2807670