Better energy futures: Developing a framework for addressing fuel poverty poverty

Groves, Christopher ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5873-1119, Henwood, Karen ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4631-5468, Pidgeon, Nicholas ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8991-0398, Shirani, Fiona, Cherry, Catherine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1443-9634 and Thomas, Gareth ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8462-0236 2019. Better energy futures: Developing a framework for addressing fuel poverty poverty. [Project Report]. Cardiff: Cardiff University.

Preview

PDF - Accepted Post-Print Version Download (909kB) | Preview

Abstract

The project was undertaken as part of a longstanding collaboration between researchers from the Understanding Risk Group at Cardiff University (CU) who work in the Schools of Social Sciences and Psychology, together with colleagues from the Consumer Insights team at the Energy Systems Catapult (ESC). It was funded by the Welsh Government, and forms part of the ESC’s Fair Futures programme, providing an initial basis for future work by ESC in developing design solutions for fuel poverty Its objective was to draw on social science research concerning people’s lived experience of energy use in order to help design fairer, more effective interventions to address fuel poverty. It aimed to do this by producing an enabling framework, to help envision how stakeholders could use research data relating to lived experience to better design innovations that address fuel poverty. To do this, it combined qualitative longitudinal research into people’s experiences of challenges surrounding energy consumption by CU with a stakeholder workshop convened and led by ESC. The research phase involved interviews with 23 participants in Caerau in South Wales over the course of 12 months Analysis of data explored to what extent people’s accounts of energy-related challenges reflected other scholars’ research findings on the nature of energy vulnerability. In particular, the analysis focused on the extent to which people described experiences of detriment brought about by inadequate access to energy services. The literature suggests that such detriment can be conceived of as a loss of capabilities, i.e. the opportunities available to people to achieve a socially valued quality of life. Key questions were to what extent people found themselves vulnerable to such detriment as a result of wider disabling conditions, and in what ways the effects of such conditions were influenced by people’s own understandings of and responses to their situation.

Item Type:	Monograph (Project Report)
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Psychology Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Publisher:	Cardiff University
Funders:	Welsh Government
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	18 July 2019
Last Modified:	06 Sep 2023 08:02
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/124132

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item