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Public disengagement from consultation is a real-world problem affecting areas of the public sphere, such as land use planning, where democracy is a key requirement. The ethos of engaging the public in decision-making has long been accepted as an important objective in the UK planning system in order to protect and serve the public interest. However, there is limited research into why the public frequently appear to disengage from the consultation process for major engineering projects such as energy infrastructure. Public disengagement can result in a lack of representation and legitimate speech in the discourse of decision-making and my research challenges the effectiveness of the current system. Drawing on human geography, planning theory, sociology and my professional experience of working as an Environmental Planner on Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects, the research moves away from the current perceptions of an instrumental approach to public consultation for infrastructure. A novel approach to conceptualising disengagement is proposed through a Bourdieusian lens, which could enable a deeper understanding of the reasons for both voluntary and involuntary disengagement. By introducing a place dimension to the conceptual framework, the research is better able to understand the cognitive, affective and behavioural dimensions that reflect the ways in which communities of place choose to engage with, or disengage from, the public consultation process for infrastructure. The research contributes conceptually, methodologically and empirically to addressing the research problem through a high voltage overhead powerline case study research design in Cumbria. Primary data has been collected through semi-structured interviews, participant observation and event ethnography. Secondary data, including local media, project documents, planning policy and best practice guidance, was also collected for contextual purposes. Qualitative methods allowed greater flexibility without a dependence on language, literacy or assumptions based on cultural norms and thematic analysis was selected as the method of analysis due to its accessibility and theoretically flexible approach to analysis which could be used with a case study research design. The credibility of the analysis was established through data collection triangulation using the secondary data to verify the emerging themes. The primary contribution to knowledge from this research has been to expand the understanding of disengagement, using the novel conceptual approach that combines the Bourdieusian conceptual framework with aspects of place, and which also has policy and practice implications. Factors affecting engagement in the case study include an underlying thread of symbolic violence and perceptions of stigma which have been shown to be partly place-based and partly resulting from community experiences of legacy planning applications for energy. There are also underlying factors of marginalisation and peripherality, with small communities frequently perceived to be without power or voice in the process. An examination of the relationship between habitus and place has suggested that disengagement can be explained by both communities of practice and of place and an analysis of the public's relationship with place through the varieties of people-place relations can bring additional insight to understanding the problem. The empirical output of the research includes a Typology of Engagement which disrupts the existing binary approach to engagement and disengagement. The typology incorporates degrees of engagement and, more significantly, degrees of disengagement which, once identified, can be used to inform public engagement strategies, taking into account the wider characteristics of locally affected publics. The findings of the case study offer a new understanding of aspects of disengagement and the findings support the argument that the conceptual approach of a Bourdieusian toolkit combined with a place dimension, can help to better understand the factors leading to disengagement. This opens up new opportunities for research in areas beyond planning, such as climate change, where public engagement could be key to the implementation of future adaptation strategies.