Jump-starting transition? Catalysing grassroots action on climate change

Reeves, Andrew; Lemon, Mark; Cook, Diana

doi:10.1007/s12053-013-9212-z

Cited by 17 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Support is understood as referring to delivering or promoting a range of interventions (financial, physical, behavioural or otherwise) that could aid a fuel poor household or support energy efficiency. A community organisation is defined for the purposes of this paper as a locally operating organisation or group, led and predominantly staffed by volunteers (e.g., Transition Town Initiatives [28]). Energy advice is understood, following Green et al (1998), as "advice which is specific to individuals and their circumstances, with the aims of improving energy efficiency, comfort and the ability of a household to achieve affordable warmth" [29].…”

Section: Definitions Of Key Termsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Local and Community Capacity to Reduce Fuel Poverty: The Case of Home Energy Advice Visits in the UK

Reeves

2016

Energies

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Local delivery of support to householders to reduce the exposure to, and impacts of, fuel poverty is attracting increasing policymaker interest, but there is a dearth of empirical research that describes and evaluates local support schemes. Community organisations are viewed as having great potential to aid this delivery, but research on how this could be achieved is scarce. The research presented in this paper responds to these needs through an exploratory study of the delivery of home energy advice visits in the UK. Data were collected through interviews and supporting documents from twelve projects and analysis examined the inter-relationships between the process, delivered outputs and impacts of each project. The research findings suggest that long-term local professional initiatives appear to be most effective at reaching and providing support to fuel poor households across a local area. Community organisations appear to have some potential to fill gaps in local provision and can assist professional initiatives, particularly through signposting, but a lack of volunteer capacity ultimately constrains their impact. Issues identified for further study include: how local support services can be resourced and delivered nationwide; trade-offs between pursuing climate change and fuel poverty agendas; a need for more robust evidence of impacts.

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Section: Definitions Of Key Termsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Local and Community Capacity to Reduce Fuel Poverty: The Case of Home Energy Advice Visits in the UK

Reeves

2016

Energies

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“…The case study shows that visioning energy systems can enhance social learning and social capital of communities. The participants valued the project as a forum for an exploration of different types of knowledge, and formation of new social relations (see also Reeves et al, 2014); the fact that two action-oriented groups did emerge out of the project was seen as one of the most valuable outputs by the participants.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The focus of the project on creating social learning and social capital was thus a modification of the original project aims in response to the desires of the assembled public (cf. Reeves, Lemon, & Cook, 2014).The idea of using models to enhance social learning in the group further also emerged from the participation process. This paper focuses on two models developed with the participants:…”

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Co-producing energy futures: impacts of participatory modelling

Krzywoszynska

Buckley

Birch

et al. 2016

Building Research & Information

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This transdisciplinary research case study sought to disrupt the usual ways public participation shapes future energy systems. An interdisciplinary group of academics and a self-assembling public of a North English town co-produced 'bottom-up' visions for a future local energy system by emphasizing local values, aspirations and desires around energy futures. The effects of participatory modelling are considered as part of a community visioning process on participants' social learning and social capital. This paper examines both the within-process dynamics related to models and the impact of the outside process, political use of the models by the participants. Both a numerical model (to explore local electricity generation and demand) and a physical scale model of the town were developed to explore various aspects of participants' visions. The case study shows that collaborative visioning of local energy systems can enhance social learning and social capital of communities. However, the effect of participatory modelling on these benefits is less clear. Tensions arise between 'inspiring' and 'empowering' role of visions. It is argued that the situatedness of the visioning processes needs to be recognized and integrated within broader aspects of governance and power relations.Keywords: agency, built environment, cooperation, co-production, energy model, renewable energy, resilience, social capitalIntroduction: bottom-up engagement with future energy systemsThe UK energy system is changing, with a transition from a high dependence on fossil fuels to a more complex, varied and intermittent energy supply landscape. The consequences of this for the socio-material environment of neighbourhoods is significant; however, democratic involvement in the shaping of energy futures remains low (Seyfang, Park, & Smith, 2013;Walker & Devine-Wright, 2008). While there is a long legacy of involving local publics in re-imagining the built fabric of their neighbourhoods (Aylett, 2013), this participatory approach has not been brought to bear on the interaction between landscapes, built environment and future energy systems. Adopting what Chilvers and Kearnes (2015) term 'residual realist' understandings of the public and of participation, dominant approaches to societal engagement BUILDING RESEARCH & INFORMATION 2016 Vol. 44, No. 7, 804-815, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2016 # Gansmo, 2012;Ivner et al., 2010; and Sheppard et al., 2011). Consequently, there are few opportunities for residents of neighbourhoods to engage with the future of the energy system on their own terms to influence it according to locally held values and visions of the good life.This paper presents a case study of a transdisciplinary research project called Solar Energy in Future Societies (SEFS) that sought to disrupt the usual ways public participation in the shaping of future energy systems is performed. The project brought together an interdisciplinary group of academics and a self-assembling public at the town of Stocksbridge, in the Sheffield area o...

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“…In recent years, sustainability transition studies have identified transition initiatives as the seeds of local transformation (Seyfang and Smith 2007;Seyfang et al 2014) looking closely on the ways they create new practices, new narratives and understandings of sustainabilities as well as viewing how they transform infrastructure systems (Reeves et al 2014). Civil society-led transition initiatives have been examined closely by scholars to assess their transformative potential, and it is the local understanding and local knowledge that civil society has that catalyzes the "tailoring to local context" and consequently leads to a fast-paced realization of new ideas and new approaches for more socially responsible governance (Aylett 2010(Aylett , 2013.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nature-Based Solutions Accelerating Urban Sustainability Transitions in Cities: Lessons from Dresden, Genk and Stockholm Cities

Frantzeskaki

Borgström

Gorissen

et al. 2017

Theory and Practice of Urban Sustainability Transitions

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Nature based solutions are amongst other practices that transition initiatives work with when intervening in their place and change its fabric. Focusing on the actors establishing, driving and scaling these solutions in and across cities, we come to evince that nature-based solutions have transformative social impact since they mediate new social relations and new social configurations contributing to social innovation in cities, and change nature perception and human-nature relations in urban contexts. We built from evidence in three city-regions that over the past years they saw the proliferation of community-based and policy-based initiatives with the aim to improve sustainability, livability and the aspiration to foster inclusivity and social justice in their cities: the city of Dresden in Germany, the city of Genk in Belgium and the city-region of Stockholm in Sweden. We will elaborate on the different ways nature based solutions as practices of transition initiatives in cities get scaled and contribute to accelerating sustainability transitions in these city-regions. In line with this, we will draw cross-case lessons for urban planning on the tensions transition initiatives that experiment with and institutionalize nature-based solutions in their cities face when actively pursue acceleration strategies and pathways to scale.

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Jump-starting transition? Catalysing grassroots action on climate change

Cited by 17 publications

References 24 publications

Exploring Local and Community Capacity to Reduce Fuel Poverty: The Case of Home Energy Advice Visits in the UK

Exploring Local and Community Capacity to Reduce Fuel Poverty: The Case of Home Energy Advice Visits in the UK

Co-producing energy futures: impacts of participatory modelling

Nature-Based Solutions Accelerating Urban Sustainability Transitions in Cities: Lessons from Dresden, Genk and Stockholm Cities

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