The research on people–place relations makes an important contribution to the understanding of the public responses to renewable energy technologies (RETs). Social media not only provides
easy access to the sentiments and attitudes of online users towards RETs, but social media content
can also shape the discourse, both on- and offline, about RETs. Hence, social media content analysis
provides valuable insights into the public responses to RETs. However, as of now, only a small
number of studies have investigated people–place relations in the context of the energy transition
via online content. To address this lack of knowledge, this study aims to increase the understanding
of people–place relations by investigating the relationship between the place scales mentioined in
Instagram posts (categorized from local to planet) and the sentiments that are expressed in said
posts, depending on different energy infrastructures (solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, powerlines,
and renewable energy in general). Our analysis of 1500 Instagram posts shows that the place scales
that are mentioned in the Instagram posts are related to some differences in the post emotionality,
and that these effects differ across the different hashtags that are related to RETs. By using a sociocognitive approach, this study is the first to investigate Instagram posts in the context of the energy
transition and people–place relationships