Exploring role-playing as a tool for involving citizens in air pollution mitigation urban policies

The study addresses persistent wintertime PM2.5 air pollution in southern Chilean cities, primarily from widespread residential wood-burning for heating, especially among energy-vulnerable households. Despite Atmospheric Decontamination Plans (ADPs) including stove replacement, certified firewood promotion, thermal retrofits, restrictions during critical episodes, and education, WHO-recommended limits are routinely exceeded. Universalist policy approaches often fail to account for heterogeneous public circumstances, leading to resistance and non-compliance. The research asks how to more effectively engage citizens in air quality governance and align mitigation measures with local social, cultural, and economic realities. It explores role-playing as a participatory tool to elicit public priorities, foster deliberation and critical thinking, and generate actionable insights for designing more effective and equitable urban air pollution mitigation policies within broader energy transition goals.

The paper situates its work within literature on participatory environmental governance and the limitations of top-down, expert-driven policy design. Prior studies in Chile highlight energy poverty and the cultural embeddedness of wood heating, affecting compliance and policy legitimacy. Role-playing and scenario-based methods have been shown to elicit multiple perspectives, explore complex socio-ecological controversies, and support learning and engagement (e.g., Steinert 1993; Alkin & Christie 2002; Rumore et al. 2016; Thomas et al. 2018). Research on behavioral segmentation and community-based social marketing underscores the need to tailor interventions (Poortinga & Darnton 2016; McKenzie-Mohr 2011). The study also connects to work on energy justice, hidden energy vulnerability, and the value of local knowledge or “street science” in informing policy (Corburn 2005; Willand et al. 2023).

Design: A role-play methodology was implemented to assess citizen preferences and deliberations on air pollution mitigation measures and to test role-playing as an engagement tool in the context of energy transitions. Participants assumed the role of advisors in a simulated local emergency committee for a fictional city, "Salsipuedes" (100,000 inhabitants, southern Chile, among the most polluted in Latin America). Study area: Six mid-sized southern Chilean cities spanning approx. 37°S to 45.5°S: Temuco, Padre Las Casas, Villarrica, Victoria, Osorno, Coyhaique. Climates are temperate rainy; some cities have ADPs and very high PM2.5 levels. Table 1 in the paper details demographics, income, poverty, indigenous population, heating degree days, and population. Participants and sampling: Non-representative but purposively recruited to reflect regional demographic diversity and balance gender/age. Recruitment via neutral third parties; participants blinded to session content/format until arrival. Informed consent under university ethics approval. Total N=46; ~65% women, 35% men; 15–19% per city; education largely university level; 29% identified as Mapuche; 26% had someone at home with chronic respiratory/cardiovascular disease; 65% used wood stoves as main heating. Procedure: Four steps: (1) Sociodemographic survey; (2) Role introduction and information delivery for the fictional city; (3) Individual assessment and prioritization of mitigation options; (4) Group deliberation and consensus-building to form an action plan. Participants received six intervention options and could propose alternatives: (a) ban wood stoves and replace with pellet/paraffin devices; (b) favor electricity as main heating; (c) replace with district heating; (d) strengthen Thermal Refurbishment Subsidy Program; (e) support certified firewood and wood-stove industry (subsidize certified wood and replace old stoves); (f) subsidize gas. No factual cost-benefit data were provided; choices were grounded in participants’ experiences. Data collection and analysis: Sessions conducted in Spanish by three researchers; audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, anonymized, and analyzed in NVivo. Inductive thematic analysis followed Braun & Clarke (2006). Initial coding by lead author; credibility checked through investigator dialogue (Graneheim & Lundman, 2004). Emerging categories were not further developed due to study characteristics. Quantitative preference rankings (individual and by city) complemented qualitative themes.

• Overall preference ranking: Thermal refurbishment was the most favored option, followed by electrification of heating, gas subsidy, and the combination of pellet substitution with bans/restrictions; district heating and supporting certified firewood were least supported. These positions generally held through deliberation.
• City-level differences: Thermal refurbishment ranked first in five cities; Osorno preferred gas subsidy. Coyhaique expressed strong support for electrification and district heating (community-scale solutions). Temuco and Padre Las Casas favored combining incentives for replacing wood stoves with enforcement alongside refurbishment (aligning with current ADP focus). Villarrica, lacking an ADP, rated improving firewood and heaters more positively, aligning with local cultural practices.
• Thermal refurbishment: Broad consensus as prerequisite for efficiency and pollution reduction; expected to lower fuel consumption and costs, especially for vulnerable households. Concerns included high costs for older homes and long implementation timelines; emphasis on better targeting to the most deficient housing to increase legitimacy.
• Electrification: Polarizing but valued for comfort, ease, and potential quick adoption given existing grids and habits. Recognized needs: increased generation, distribution upgrades, in-home wiring improvements; risks of socio-environmental conflicts (e.g., with Mapuche communities), energy security, affordability, and fire risk in poorly wired homes. Calls for strong price regulation to ensure universal access.
• Gas subsidy: Despite Punta Arenas’ positive example, generally rated poorly due to high cost, need for sustained public transfers/regulation, energy import dependency, safety/infrastructure concerns, and perceptions of unstable or damp heat.
• Pellet replacement and bans/restrictions: Pellets viewed as culturally closer to firewood and potentially less resisted. Bans on firewood were controversial, perceived as ineffective/enforceability-limited and inequitable for poor households reliant on cheap wood; participants preferred incentives, education, and cultural change over prohibition. Existing restrictions seen as inconsistently enforced and misaligned with real-world practices, including burning waste/coal.
• District heating: Limited prior knowledge; generally low priority due to high cost, long timelines, infrastructure absence, and operational challenges requiring community organization. Some support in Temuco and Coyhaique, where it was seen as directly addressing source control by removing user tampering.
• Certified firewood support: Lowest-rated option; concerns about higher prices driving informal markets, shifting responsibility to end-users, continued exceedances even with certification, risks of illegal felling, and fire hazards. Cultural comfort benefits acknowledged but seen as insufficient for air quality goals.
• Participation outcomes: Role-playing fostered critical thinking, constructive argumentation, and a focus on energy insecurity. Participants emphasized clean air and thermally safe housing as fundamental rights and prioritized measures that improve energy efficiency and protect vulnerable households. Quantitative sample notes: N=46; ~65% women; 29% Mapuche; 26% with chronic illness in household; 65% wood-stove users.

The findings demonstrate that role-playing can bridge gaps between technical ADP measures and lived experiences, enabling citizens to prioritize feasible, equitable interventions. Participants consistently prioritized thermal refurbishment as a foundational step to reduce fuel use, costs, and PM emissions, directly addressing energy insecurity and hidden energy vulnerability. Electrification was attractive for practicality but raised equity, infrastructure, and socio-environmental concerns, highlighting the need to align national decarbonization goals with local realities and protections for vulnerable groups. Skepticism toward gas subsidies and certified firewood programs reflects worries about affordability, dependency, enforcement, and responsibility shifting to end-users. Controversy over bans underscores cultural attachments to wood heating and the risk of punitive measures exacerbating hardship; participants favored incentives, education, and culturally sensitive transitions. Overall, role-play uncovered nuanced, context-specific trade-offs and emphasized targeting resources to the most deficient housing and ensuring universal, affordable access to clean heating. The approach can inform iterative, inclusive policymaking and be extended to other urban environmental issues where multiple actors and values must be reconciled.

Role-playing games offer a practical, socially legitimate avenue for engaging citizens, academics, and policymakers in diagnosing air pollution problems, setting priorities, and co-designing action plans. The technique helps reorient debates from individual interests to community well-being, reduces complexity to manageable scenarios, and surfaces equity considerations central to just energy transitions. In southern Chile, participants prioritized thermal refurbishment and context-appropriate pathways to cleaner heating while cautioning against poorly enforceable or inequitable measures. Institutionalizing such participatory methods can enhance the effectiveness and legitimacy of urban environmental policies and may be transferable to domains like biodiversity conservation, waste management, water saving, and heatwave health protection. Future research should expand, iterate, and tailor role-play designs to diverse groups and contexts to refine policy-relevant insights.

• Methodological simplification: Role-playing simplifies reality and operates with limited information; by itself it should initiate structured dialogue rather than determine final policy decisions.
• Sampling/segmentation: Groups were not internally homogeneous nor maximally heterogeneous between groups; more precise segmentation and tailored group composition could yield more actionable insights for different populations and territories.
• Exploratory design: The study does not establish causal relationships; findings should be contrasted and extended across other contexts and with more sophisticated designs.