Reducing Energy Consumption Through Community Knowledge Networks

Completed

Energy Efficiency(Residential and commercial)
Other Cross-Cutting Technologies or Research(Environmental, social and economic impacts)

Applied Research and Development

SOCIAL SCIENCES (Sociology)

Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Consumer attitudes and behaviour)
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Technology acceptance)
Other (Energy technology information dissemination)

Professor A Dobson
School of Politics, International Relations & Philosophy
Keele University

Standard

ESRC

01 March 2011

29 August 2014

42 months

£370,882

West Midlands

Ventures

Professor A Dobson, School of Politics, International Relations & Philosophy, Keele University

Dr PJJ Catney, School of Politics, International Relations & Philosophy, Keele University
Dr S MacGregor, Sustainable Consumption Institute, University of Manchester
Professor RM Ormerod, Keele University
Dr ZP Robinson, Geography, Geology and the Environment, Keele University

The 'clean' generation and use of energy is one of the biggest challenges facing us today. While tackling energy issues at an individual level is important, we know less about the potential for community-level initiatives to drive positive change. The research will focus on knowledge networks in two types of community with contrasting track records of energy-use engagement. The aim is to compare and contrast the energy-related knowledge circulation flows in these two types of community and to see which strategies work best in each of them. These results should be transferable to similar types of community beyond our target groups. The methodology will be emergent as the project seeks to engage the communities in the research process, especially in terms of measuring the success of interventions, but the focus will be knowledge network analysis. Research questions include:

How do we effectively disseminate information about energy reduction in different types of community?

Which actors/organisations within communities are the most effective at disseminating environmental knowledge?

What are the barriers to the adoption of energy reduction strategies in different types of community?

What is the relationship between new forms of knowledge about energy reduction and individual level behaviour change?

In what ways can legislation and planning policy be adjusted to promote more energy efficient practices appropriate to different types of community?

17/07/15