Investigating community led energy demand reduction

initiatives through the lens of “energy biographies”

Prof. Karen Henwood

Dr Catherine Butler Dr Karen Parkhill Dr Fiona Shirani Prof. Nick Pidgeon

Architecture 9 January 2013

Energy Biographies Research Objectives

1. Develop understanding of energy use by investigating and comparing people's different ‘energy biographies’ across a range of social settings

 2. Examine how existing demand reduction interventions interact

with people's personal biographies and histories.  3. Develop improved understanding of how different community

types can support reductions in energy consumption

…We are also exploring the usefulness of innovative (narrative, longitudinal and visual) methods for researching energy demand

Theoretical Background

•Social phenomena are socially co-constructed, fluid, negotiated and contextual – this process is relational

•Social change and continuity as social reproduction

• Practices develop in conjunction with ‘others’

Practice Theory(e.g. Bourdieu, Shove)

•‘‘Biographies are rooted in an analysis of social history and the wellsprings of individual personality, [they] reach backward and forward in time, documenting processes and experiences of social change”

Biography and the Life course

(e.g. Chamberlayne)

•Practice is contingent upon and produced within historical processes that also provide the conditions of possibility for future continuities and changes.

•Transitional processes play out in particular places and through different forms of community

Temporality and Space

(e.g. Adam, Massey)

Theoretical development: Identity and Energy Consumption

‘Consumption comprises a set of practices which permit people to express self-identity, mark attachment to social groups, accumulate resources,

exhibit social distinction, ensure participation in social activities, and more besides. However, these processes bear primarily on the way that

individuals select among the vast array of alternative items made available in the form of commodities and their symbolic communicative potential….

‘…Only at best obliquely and indirectly does the purchase or use of water, coal, gas or electricity confer self-identity, mark attachment to social

groups or exhibit social distinction.’

(Shove and Warde, 2001)

Identity Production in Theory and Method

Shaping of psychosocial spaces (Masco)

Identity processes in social change

and consumption

(Warde)

Fateful moments/

turning points (Thompson and

Holland)

Intergenerational identities, cultural heritage & social

reproduction

Time, texture and biography in identity construction / Identities in the making

(Henwood)

Risk & identity futures (Henwood and Pidgeon)

Individualisation & self-growth - the art of

living (Holstein & Gubrium)

Culture, consumption & identity - the extended

critiques (Wetherell)

Life-histories, social histories: An integrative identity studies framework within social psychology (Wetherell,

1996)Processes under investigation • The making of individual identity (life history) & the broad formation of

social identities (social history)• “to consider precisely how all that made society connects with all that

made me” (p300)

Key questions• How are people positioned as they develop?• How do we come to be where we currently inhabit?

Accounts given/examined • = of the particulars of a life - to explain people’s life choices to go one way

or the other

Wetherell’s three different arenas of study & analytic resources

• Family life and subject positions

Family life and subject positions

The making of a life : the weight of social history

Personality & social practices

Case Sites

Royal Free Hospital, London

Peterston and Ely Caerau, Cardiff

Tir Y Gafel Eco-village, Pembrokeshire

Methods

• These involve interviews and informal meetings with case site representatives and a wider range of stakeholders to provide detailed contextual information.

Phase 1: Scoping Stakeholder Interviews

July 2011-December 2011

• 18-30 initial narrative interviews in each case site area (n=68)

Phase 2a: Narrative Interviews

December 2011-April 2012

• Follow up interviews 5 AND 10 months with a selected sample from each case site. Participants are being asked to engage in a range of other multi modal methods (e.g. photographs)

Phase 2b: Extended Biographies &

Multimodal MethodMay 2012-February 2013

Phase 1: Developing Relationships• Case Site Representatives – initial meetings

• Also full participants in longitudinal research

• Advisory Panel

• Community Volunteering

• Sustaining Relationships (e.g. Christmas cards)

This is a community newsletter developed by Karen Parkhill for Futurespace

Phase 2: Narrative Interview Themes

2. Daily routine• Talk through in detail to get an understanding of energy

use and practices• Discuss how this varies for atypical times/events

e.g. Christmas, weekends

3. Life transitions• What have been the key events/turning points that have

resulted in a lifestyle change?• How might lifestyles and transitions differ for future

generations?

1. Community and Context• Talk through how they came to live in their current home/area, how they characterise their community(s) • Connections – e.g. who they live with/is in their family • Discussion points specific to the particular case area

Phase 3: Qualitative Longitudinal

1. Initial interview – establishing energy biographies through a focus on three themes:• Community and context • Daily routine • Life transitions

2. Second interview – a detailed focus on everyday energy use• Discussion of important life changes since interview 1• Exploring everyday energy use through participant generated photographs• Following up emerging themes from interview 1: waste, frugality and guilt

3. Third interview – exploring futures• Discussion of important life changes since interview 2• Exploring everyday routines through text-prompted photographs• Expanded talk about the future (both personal and social), facilitated through

video clips

Phase 3: Multi-modal Methods1. Activity 1 – participant-generated photos

• Participants were asked to take photographs of things they felt related to energy use in relation to four themes

• Two week period for each theme. Participants were sent texts to remind them of the theme

• Pictures then formed the basis for discussion in interview 2

‘I found it quite useful having the groups you know the focuses I think cos otherwise I would have yeah I think I’d have kind of tailed off’ Emmanuelle

Phase 3: Multi-modal Methods

2. Activity 2 – text-prompted photos• Text messages sent to participants at 10 intervals between August-November

2012 asking them to take a picture of what they were doing at the time• From these pictures we created photo narratives, to be discussed with

participants in interview 3

Phase 3: Multi-modal Methods

3. Activity 3 – video clips• During interview 3 participants are shown clips from a 1950s and 2010s version

of what a home of the future might look like• The clips facilitate talk about the future, which can otherwise be difficult to

discuss

Analytic Approaches

• Coding and thematic analysis

• Case biographies

• Qualitative Longitudinal

• Multi-modal

Coding

Insights from Coding

Caroline: My little one [great grandchild]… she’s quite good even with recycling she knows exactly which bin you know from an early age watch me doing the black bin and the green bin and she’ll say to me “which bin nanny green or black”? Which is great, if the kids start doing it you know so its just educating them … I think it’s just instead of nagging them just sort of gently remind them about their future more than the money.

Interviewer: Is that what you say to your children and grandchildren about what they should do?

Caroline: Yeah I usually say it’s not about the money, which it is as well but like I said it’s more important that you’ve got a future for your kids.

Interviewer: What’s their response to that?

Caroline: Quite good actually yeah because … he absolutely adores his daughter so anything that would jeopardise her future I think he listens to.

(Dis)Connected Futures?

Insights from Coding

Lammas Futurespace

Lammas aims to establish a thriving example of low-impact development, providing an educational resource pointing the way for truly sustainable rural developments of the future. The project has been designed to run on permaculture principles. The land will be developed to improve the synergy of the different habitats across the site, simultaneously enhancing bio-diversity and leading to an increased but sustainable yield from the land. Where there is currently degraded agricultural pasture, Lammas plans to create a landscape of vitality and abundance.

Futurespace Ely and Caerau is a group set up by a core group of enthusiastic volunteers who are passionate about bringing communities together and promoting sustainable living; we are supported by the local Communities First team who are helping us to carry our vision forward. Futurespace aims to generate a sustainable future in Wales by working with communities in Ely and Caerau. There are two key goals - to reduce the use of natural resources and to address the issue of fuel poverty in the local area.

Community – Presences and Absences

Insights from Coding

“Alright Futurespace would obviously get the tariffs but then if you’re in business you want to make money don’t you”

“Mind a lot of people were a bit taken aback with it because there’s an old saying: you don’t get anything for nothing and because it was free…it was hard to convince them that…it was ok; people get a bit suspicious about things for nothing and that was quite sort of eye opening”

Community – External Group Identity Work

Insights from Coding:External group identity work at Lammas

Case Biographies

Mary – Peterston, Cardiff

“…I would have liked to have lived in the City… I had never lived in a city, so I was quite keen to try… but Roger very much didn't want to live in the City and he was right… we made some good friends here

and I'm quite involved in some of the activities, it was a good decision.”

“We had previously lived in the Midlands…and had decided that we were both ready to job move and Roger was head-hunted…

Well we needed to be close enough to Roger’s place of work and I got a job…”

Insights from Case Biographies - Mary

Understanding Travel Practices

Following the Narrative

“That is my one, yeah, if you asked me what was the one thing where my preference to be environmentally friendly goes out of the window then it is travel for a number of reasons. My Mum-in-Law is ninety and lives in

Essex. My Mum is eighty three and lives in Durham and both of them need regular visits so I do do a lot of miles and my horse is not close, so I

also do a fair amount of miles more frequently to him”

“Roger died in 2005 and I stopped work two years ago now… because we've got lots of friends here and because it was the house that we sort

of created together I suppose, I would find it difficult to move…. But eventually… the house is big and the garden is big… My brother and his

wife live in the US, so it's great when they come over…”

Mary – Peterston, Cardiff

Insights from Case Biographies - Mary

Insights from Case BiographiesThe Long View on Change to Travel Practices

Qualitative Longitudinaland Multi-Modal

Insights from Qualitative Longitudinal

“And recently the job situation, that’s changed that dramatically, of me being here all the time, you know, obviously looking for work … I’m finding that I’m in the house a lot more because I can do it all at a touch of a button … And I am quite wary about having things on whilst I’m here, I’m using too much energy whilst I’m here, because it’s only going to have a knock on effect because I wouldn’t be doing that if I was at work. I wouldn’t be watching the telly if I was at work, I wouldn’t have the heating on if I was there. And at a time where I need things to be going down, it’s going to, you know, it’s going to rocket.” (Lauren, interview 1)

“Yeah I mean obviously the main thing is not being here all day so there’s 8/10 hours out of the day that I’m not even in the house so I don’t tend to use the energy, and then obviously when I come home its cooking, watching the telly or going on the laptop and then pretty much going to bed so I don’t really use it a lot … so yeah it’s obviously a huge difference not being in the house for eight hours and not having to use that time to look for jobs and things like that as well you know, going on the internet and things so yeah.” (Lauren, interview 2)

Insights from Qualitative Longitudinal

‘I will usually travel in once or twice a week by bus, once or twice a week by bike and the rest of the day is by car, depending on what my work commitments are. If I don’t need the car I try to avoid using it.’ (Jeremy, Interview 1)

‘No I don’t think it has except perhaps made me feel guilty about car use, that’s been a function of the [volunteer activity] stuff as well because normally I probably travelled in half the week by bike or public transport and used the car when I needed to go somewhere now I have more meetings that are at half past 5, 6 o’clock in [another town] so there are more days when I need to rush out of work and jump in the car and go there.’ (Jeremy, interview 2)

Understanding Temporalities and Action

Lammas, 2nd Interview – photo-elicitation

Insights from Qualitative Longitudinal Multi-Modal

Conclusions

• Energy Biographies as a lens that can help us to: – Better understand the “lived” nature of energy

system transitions– Generate insights into how energy demand is

formulated and how ‘interventions’ – both new and already existing – effect practice

– Better understand “community” and its significance for energy demand reduction

– Create a bridge between policies of demand reduction and the realities of everyday life

For more information please visit our website at:

www.energybiographies.org