Mediating Identity Conflicts in Green Mega-Infrastructure Projects

Abstract

Green mega-infrastructure projects are increasingly central to the global green energy transition. Yet they often generate conflict when stakeholder engagement fails to address underlying issues of identity, recognition and belonging. These dynamics unfold against a backdrop of institutional logics that prioritize efficiency, planning authority and investment security. This paper re-examines stakeholder engagement through the lens of negotiation theory, arguing that existing frameworks often remain conflict-blind and reduce identity to procedural categories. Drawing on Rothman’s ARIA framework, it extends the logic of interest-based negotiation by introducing a relational, identity-sensitive approach to conflict in green mega-infrastructure project governance. Accordingly, the paper advances the concept of identity narratives – dynamic and relational storylines through which actors, communities and developers alike, articulate identity claims of belonging, legitimacy and recognition in conflict. It integrates this typology within the ARIA framework by structuring antagonism, resonance, invention and action around contested identities to promote a more recognition-sensitive approach to stakeholder engagement.