Between efficiency and democracy: Explaining support and resistance towards energy transition and prosumer solutions in Polish and Czech housing cooperatives

The decarbonisation of multi-family buildings is crucial for Europe’s energy transition, yet the role of collective forms of housing governance in this process remains poorly understood. This paper examines how institutional dynamics shape energy investments in Poland and Czechia. Using institutional theory and 61 semi-structured interviews with policymakers and cooperative representatives, we demonstrate that housing cooperatives are structurally positioned to adopt renewable energy technologies primarily as top-down, techno-economic projects aimed at reducing costs. Where energy transition occurs, it tends to follow a centralised, efficiency-driven logic that restricts deeper resident engagement. Experiences with more advanced prosumer solutions illustrate the difficulties of translating both top-down and individually oriented frameworks into cooperative settings shaped by distinct legal, organisational, and cultural conditions. By integrating institutional theory with cooperative studies, the paper shows how path-dependent governance and conflicting logics limit bottom-up energy initiatives in multi-family housing.