The solution / outcome
The research team designed an experiment using social listening to map the diversity of community perspectives on offshore wind. The aim was not to persuade communities to accept projects, but to understand the plurality of values shaping local responses and test whether differences could be navigated toward areas of consensus.
Through analysis of social media and submissions, we developed eight personas: Community Guardian, Environmental Sceptic, Eco-Advocate, Pragmatic Optimist, Economic Realist, Energy Visionary, Ocean Enthusiast and Cultural Steward.
These personas distilled recurring values and concerns. In workshops, participants ‘stepped into’ different personas, which encouraged empathy, reduced defensiveness, and revealed overlaps and tensions.
Workshops asked how community benefit schemes could be legitimate, fairly distributed, and transparently governed. Several personas agreed benefits should be collective (infrastructure, training, health) rather than individual payments. Consensus also emerged around transparent and independent governance of funds. Divisions persisted over visual impacts and trust in developers, but shared concerns about respect, honesty, and long-term responsibility were clear.
Findings and Outcomes
- 1Reframing opposition – Resistance to offshore wind reflected mistrust in decision-making—not rejection of renewables.
- 2Identifying common ground – Despite polarisation, overlapping values such as fairness, transparency, and intergenerational responsibility were shared.
- 3Legitimising diversity – Treating each persona as ethically significant reduced the marginalisation of dissenting views.
- 4Pathways to social licence – The workshops produced a coherent community position when values are integrated and benefit schemes co-designed.
- 5Role of researchers – Acting as independent facilitators enabled trust, reflection, and dialogue beyond what industry and government might achieve alone.
Lessons Learned
Social licence cannot be reduced to information campaigns or transactional benefits. It requires deep engagement with ethical complexity. Social listening helps acknowledge plurality, foster empathy, and seek consensus without erasing difference, and can aid in positioning communities as co-authors of renewable futures.
Awareness of persona groups will make a difference to my approach. Drawing my attention to ethical aspects and personality difference was something I haven’t considered.
Participant #24
The impact
Findings on stakeholder values, diversity and opportunities for overlapping consensus will be valuable for building legitimacy in Australia’s energy transition. The community activities had immediate impacts: exit surveys showed participants gained appreciation of other stakeholders’ values, and NGO members planned to modify their advocacy efforts to better engage those with different values.
