Does civil society matter? Challenges and strategies of grassroots initiatives in Italy's energy transition

Against this background, on the basis of qualitative research centered on semi-structured interviews with civil society actors, we analyze the main grassroots initiatives emerging in Italy in regard to the production, consumption, and recently the provision, of renewable energy. In the discussion part of the paper, we explore these innovative practices with a comparative approach taking Germany as the main reference point. Hence we explain the fragility of Italian experience in relation to structural socio-economic characteristics of the country - namely municipal socialism and dualism of the capitalist system - and to the evolution of the Italian cooperative movement. Eventually we also assess the potential of emerging initiatives for challenging the existing centralized energy system.