Integrating Social Representations Theory and Futures Studies for Studying Transitions’ Acceptability

This paper proposes an integrated framework combining Social Representations Theory (SRT) and Futures Studies to advance the study of energy transitions’ social acceptability. Focusing on agrivoltaics (APV) as a novel and contested renewable energy technology, the research investigates how citizens and experts in Italy and beyond construct meanings, evaluate legitimacy, and negotiate future visions around APV. The project unfolds across multiple studies: a large-scale survey (n = 851) assessing lay citizens’ attitudes and behavioral intentions through the integrated Sustainable Energy Technology Acceptance (i-SETA) framework, enriched with measures of anticipatory solastalgia; a socio-dynamic mapping of semantic fields through free association and interviews with experts; and interactive workshops and Future Labs designed to capture polemical representations and competing representational projects. Complementarily, the project explores how speculative narratives, from utopian to solarpunk fiction, contribute to the diffusion and contestation of energy imaginaries. By bridging cognitive, affective, and temporal dimensions of transitions, this approach highlights how present distress over anticipated losses, collective memories, and desirable futures intersect in shaping acceptance. Ultimately, integrating SRT with Futures Studies allows for a socio-constructivist understanding of energy transitions, moving beyond rational-choice accounts of acceptability to uncover the symbolic struggles, power dynamics, and alternative visions that underpin sustainable transformations.