The mediating role of social workers in the implementation of regional policies targeting energy poverty

Abstract

This paper aims to provide a socio-political reflection of the role played by social workers in regional policies and of the real needs of households affected by energy poverty. The paper also examines the impact of technical-specialised training on the ability of social workers to prevent and mitigate conditions of household energy poverty in Europe. The adoption of a research-action-participation methodological framework and a training research approach has permitted the opinions of social workers to be collected through surveys, and their central role in implementing regional policies to be highlighted. The conclusions obtained have made possible the construction of a self-diagnosis and data-collection tool which increases the ability of social workers to mediate and implement urgent mitigation measures for energy impoverished households. Finally, regional policies which aim to mitigate household energy poverty are examined from the professional perspective of social workers.

Building Energy Assessment and Computer Simulation Applied to Social Housing in Spain

“…Only 15% of the households in building B requested a reduction in their contracted power to adapt the supply to their needs and thus reduce electricity costs. This result is in line with the low level of social tariff applications by social housing residents: thus, not many residents benefit from discounts for vulnerable households, according to another survey of social housing residents in the same region of Aragon, by Scarpellini et al (2017) [52].…”

Energy Poverty

“…Their findings, which are based on statistical modelling of large data sets from the Italian family budget survey, indicate that 'in the period considered, reforms in the water, natural gas and electricity markets were not accompanied by exacerbated affordability issues in Italy' (Miniaci et al, 2008, p. 162). More recent work has updated and developed these findings further, by exploring the wider context of network industry reform, as well as the role of regional policies (Florio, 2013;Scarpellini, Sanz Hernández, Llera-Sastresa, Aranda, & López Rodríguez, 2017).…”

“…The existence of energy poverty in the 'developed' countries of the Global North was traditionally interpreted within a relatively narrow thematic and geographic register: for a long time, public recognition of the problem was limited to the UK and the Republic of Ireland. The last decade has seen as expansion of scientific and policy debates to a much wider range of countries and regions, particularly in Europe but also in North America, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand (Hilbert & Werner, 2016;Kim, Lee, Ahn, Lim, & Kim, 2016;Liu, Judd, & Santamouris, 2017;Oppenheim, 2016;Scarpellini, Sanz Hernández, Llera-Sastresa, Aranda, & López Rodríguez, 2017;Teller-Elsberg, Sovacool, Smith, & Laine, 2016;Tirado & Jiménez Meneses, 2016;Williams, Wooliscroft, & Lawson, 2015). Of note is the recent establishment of a European Energy Poverty Observatory-a new initiative supported by the European Union (EU), aimed at providing a public hub for the gathering and dissemination of information on the extent and nature of domestic energy deprivation in Europe.…”

Big Data and Energy Poverty Alleviation

“…Although this approach could prevent the issues caused by energy poverty, it would not solve the energy poverty itself. In addition, there is an ongoing debate about the type of social aid in both academic society (see References Karásek and Pojar [60], Oppenheim [61], Scarpellini et al [62]) and social/political campaigns (for instance, see References Thomson and Bouzarovski [22], Enet English [37], Daily Mail Press Association [63], Long-Bailey [64]). Three other popular strategies to alleviate energy poverty are to "increase energy efficiency of dwelling" [65,66], "increase energy affordability and demand management" [61,67,68] and "increase access to clean/modern energy" [69][70][71].…”