The identity‐attitude nexus in the representation of energy transition in a coal region (Sulcis, Italy): An exploration through the Structural Topic Model

Rizzoli, Valentina; Biddau, Fulvio; Sarrica, Mauro

doi:10.1002/ejsp.3004

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Much of the previous NLP-powered energy transition research has focused on using unsupervised machine learning methods, specifically topic modeling, to uncover latent topics in the material [Dehler-Holland et al, 2021;Repo et al, 2021;Rizzoli et al, 2024;Saheb et al, 2022;Tie and Zhu, 2022]. Alternatively, dictionary-based NLP has been employed to analyse specific aspects of data, such as gender perspectives [Carroll et al, 2024], involvement of startups in renewable energy [Singh et al, 2021], and renewable energy investor sentiment [Herrera et al, 2022].…”

Section: An Anonymous Commenter On An Online News Site In January 2023mentioning

confidence: 99%

Applying computational approaches to energy discourse: a comparative methodological study of rule-based and large language model qualitative content analysis

Kousa

2024

Journal of Data Mining &Amp; Digital Humanities

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The objective of this study is to conduct a comparative analysis of a rule-based ontological classification tool and a large language model (LLM) chatbot as qualitative content analysis tools. The focus is on assessing their strengths and limitations when applied to the study of the discourse surrounding the energy transition. To achieve this, I used the tools to analyse two different types of corpora: citizens' social media discussions and politicians' parliamentary speeches. In the analysis, I evaluated the differences in the methods' recall and precision levels. Additionally, I assessed the extent to which these methods align with scientific principles, including reliability, transparency, and research integrity. The results reveal a classic trade-off: LLM's precision is high, but its recall is comparatively low, suggesting its strength in generating accurate but potentially incomplete analyses. On the other hand, the rule-based method outperforms in recall at the expense of precision, capturing more data points, but with varying accuracy levels. I discuss the implications of the results and outline ideas for leveraging the strengths of both methods in future studies. This article provides researchers with insights into the selection and application of computational tools in the social sciences and humanities, as well as in multifaceted research topics, such as energy transition.

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Section: An Anonymous Commenter On An Online News Site In January 2023mentioning

confidence: 99%

Applying computational approaches to energy discourse: a comparative methodological study of rule-based and large language model qualitative content analysis

Kousa

2024

Journal of Data Mining &Amp; Digital Humanities

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Researching Attitude–Identity Dynamics to Understand Social Conflict and Change

Lüders,

Quayle,

Maher

et al. 2024

Euro J Social Psych

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Societies undergo constant change, manifested in various ways such as technological developments, economic transitions, reorganization of cultural values and beliefs, or changes in social structures. Individuals play an active role in shaping social and societal change by interactively negotiating its manifestation. However, this shaping of change is seldom harmonious; instead, it is often characterized by dissent and conflict. This special section gathers a collection of articles concerned with the role of attitude–identity dynamics in contexts of contemporary conflict and change. The corpus of research that builds this special section describes mutual impacts of attitudes and identities, explores different actors in social debates and covers a wide range of both established and innovative research methodology. This introduction summarizes and synthesizes the various contributions and offers insights into future research directions.

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Phasing-out ‘coal tradition’ in favour of ‘renewable colonialism’: how the press contributes to the discursive (de)legitimization of coal and renewables in a coal region in transition

Biddau,

Rizzoli,

Sarrica

2023

Sustain Sci

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This article examines the Sulcis coal region in Italy and illustrates how discursive dynamics can impede energy transition by delegitimizing coal decline and the diffusion of renewable energies. Combining quantitative analyses of textual data and argumentative discourse analysis, we analyze newspaper articles published between 2011 and 2021 in the national, regional, and local press. Our findings reveal that shifts in topic salience and storylines reflect different transition phases (coal legitimacy, regime destabilization, and reconfiguration). Throughout the analyzed period, newspapers have cultivated a discursive environment that weakens efforts to phase out coal and promote low-carbon energy by amplifying particular storylines endorsed by competing discourse coalitions. Media discourse consistently portrays decarbonization and coal phase-out as threatening, anticipating disruption to regional livelihoods and traditions. Over time, renewable energies are marginalized or hindered by storylines promoting regime stability (coal legitimacy), soft transformation (coal-to-gas transition), and, finally, a reconfiguration (utility-scale renewable transition) promoted by incumbents and resisted by locally based discourse coalitions perceiving it as a form of colonialism. This study sheds light on the interplay between discourse dynamics and the complexities and challenges of the destabilization–reconfiguration pathway of coal regions. It contends that approaches combining both build-up and break-down dynamics into the analysis of transitions can offer a more nuanced, politically sensitive understanding and practical insights to instigate and navigate more equitable destabilization–reconfiguration pathways.

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The identity‐attitude nexus in the representation of energy transition in a coal region (Sulcis, Italy): An exploration through the Structural Topic Model

Cited by 5 publications

References 106 publications

Applying computational approaches to energy discourse: a comparative methodological study of rule-based and large language model qualitative content analysis

Applying computational approaches to energy discourse: a comparative methodological study of rule-based and large language model qualitative content analysis

Researching Attitude–Identity Dynamics to Understand Social Conflict and Change

Phasing-out ‘coal tradition’ in favour of ‘renewable colonialism’: how the press contributes to the discursive (de)legitimization of coal and renewables in a coal region in transition

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