"We are a community but that takes a certain amount of energy": Exploring shared visions, social action and resilience in place-based community-led initiatives

Parkhill, Karen, Shirani, Fiona, Butler, Catherine, Henwood, Karen ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4631-5468, Groves, Christopher Robert ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5873-1119 and Pidgeon, Nicholas Frank ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8991-0398 2015. "We are a community but that takes a certain amount of energy": Exploring shared visions, social action and resilience in place-based community-led initiatives. Environmental Science & Policy 53 (A) , pp. 60-69. 10.1016/j.envsci.2015.05.014

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Abstract

n UK energy policy, community-led energy initiatives are increasingly being imbued with transformative power to facilitate low carbon transitions. The ways that such expectations for communities are manifesting in practice remains, however, relatively poorly understood. In particular, key conceptual developments in unpacking what constitutes ‘community’ that highlight the significance of ‘place’ along with important characteristics, such as shared visions, collective social action, and resilience, have yet to be comprehensively explored in the context of community-led energy initiatives. This paper uses an interpretive stance to engage with these conceptual ideas about community and provides insights into the nature of community and its meaning for developing energy-related initiatives and realising the wider goals of energy policy. The paper draws on data from in-depth qualitative, longitudinal interviews undertaken in two residential communities and one purely workplace-based community, which are engaged in community energy initiatives. We argue that there are difficulties and ambiguities in creating shared visions, achieving social action, and developing resilience that are related to the specificities of community in place, but that all three characteristics are likely to be important for the making of sustainable places.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Psychology Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare
Publisher:	Elsevier
Funders:	ESRC
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Date of Acceptance:	15 May 2015
Last Modified:	11 Nov 2024 06:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/74196

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