A grassroots sustainable energy niche? Reflections on community energy case studies

System changing innovations for sustainability transitions are proposed to emerge in radical innovative niches. ‘Strategic Niche Management’ theory predicts that niche level actors and networks will aggregate learning from local projects, distilling and disseminating best practice. This should lower the bar for new projects to form and establish, thereby encouraging the innovation to diffuse through replication. Within this literature, grassroots innovations emerging from civil society are an under researched site of sociotechnical innovation for sustainable energy transitions. We consider the emerging community energy sector in the UK, in order to empirically test this model. Community energy is a diverse grassroots led sector including both demand and supply side initiatives for sustainable energy such as community owned renewable energy generation, village hall refurbishments, behaviour change initiatives and energy efficiency projects. Our analysis draws on in depth qualitative case study research with twelve local projects, and a study of how intermediary organisations aim to support local projects and encourage replication. This rich data allows us to examine the extent and nature of interactions between projects and intermediary actors in order to evaluate the utility of niche theories in the civil society context. In particular, we investigate which types of knowledge, support and resources were needed by our case study projects to become established and thrive, and compare and contrast this with those offered by the emerging community energy niche. Our findings indicate that while networking and intermediary organisations can effectively collate and spread some types of learning and information necessary for replication, this is not sufficient: tacit knowledge, trust and confidence are essential to these projects’ success, but are more difficult to abstract and translate to new settings. We draw out the implications of our findings for niche theory, for community energy and other grassroots practitioners aiming to build robust influential niches, and for policymakers eager to harness civil society’s innovative potential for sustainability

Reflections on Our First Initiatives

Shares observations and lessons learned from TCWF's first five strategic initiatives: violence prevention, health improvement, work and health, teen pregnancy prevention, and children and youth community health. Part of TCWF's Reflections series

Moments in a Movement: APEN 2002 Annual Report

Community organizing is our central strategy to achieve environmental, social and economic justice. Our two local San Francisco Bay Area projects are the 8-year old Laotian Organizing Project (LOP) in Richmond, which also houses the Asian Youth Advocates program for young women, and the year-old Power in Asians Organizing (PAO) working with the pan-Asian immigrant community in Oakland. This report includes case studies and reflections on the work APEN does

Community Work, Community Development: Reflections 2009

The autumn 2008 publication Towards Standards for Quality Community Work, (Towards Standards Ad Hoc Group, 2008) aims to assemble in one place definitions and statements of the values and principles underpinning Irish community work. In this short article, using the standards and their development as a starting point, we focus on some of the features of the Irish community work tradition developed over the past three decades and of which the standards are themselves a reflection. Through the discussion we interweave suggestions on future issues and challenges

The Digital Cultural Atlas Project: Design Research and Cultural Narratives. An Experiential Approach for Design Education.

This paper outlines an approach developed for teaching research methods in a graphic design program, working in an interdisciplinary context with cultural researchers. Initially, the Digital Cultural Atlas (DCA) is introduced, as a 'work-in-progress' web site, which locates a diversity of geographic and place-based cultural resources across Greater Western Sydney. The initial information architecture consists of ‘bird’s eye view’ cartographic maps and cultural project resources. Through a teaching project in design research, students consider ways in which experiential ‘on the ground’ visual stories can be included. Initial student research identifies a diversity of observed cultural community contexts and situations. This is followed by a second smaller scale study of fewer sites, using an understanding of participatory design research. In this stage, each student researches an individual community context using two 'voices' of the self - as participant, and as observer. These engagements with the self as 'actor' are recorded in a journal format across a specific time period, with reference to reflections prior to, during, and after 'action'. These provide the basis for the new visual stories in the DCA. This paper describes and critiques this approach to teaching design research in visual communication, based on the DCA. In so doing, it links design research with human experiences of community and culture to engage with wider debates about the design of digital mapping spaces as information systems. The paper concludes with some reflections about the project's possible future as an ongoing participatory community resource which engages with both geographic and experiential web content and form. Keywords: Design Education; Participatory Design; Visual Narrative; Digital Mapping Systems; Community Identity; Designer As Actor</p

Service Learning as a Teaching Strategy

Included in this resource packet: An Overview of Vermont Community Works; Articulating Social Education at Guilford School; Reflections on Community Building in the Classroom; Professional Development; and Reflections on Service Learning

EUROPEAN ECONOMIC INTEGRATION – CHALLENGES AND CONSEQUENCES ON ROMANIAN FINANCIAL SYSTEM SOUNDNESS

The international financial events of the second half of the 90s has provoked reflections and analysis within the international community on ways to strengthen the international financial system in order to achieve financial soundness. International organfinancial system, financial stability, system soundness, macro-prudential indicators, NBR’role

Faith, Community and Civic Action: Reflections on the Organized Religion Initiative

Evaluates how well six California faith-based institutions used community organizing to pull immigrant and low-income communities into more active involvement with political and civic leadership and participation activities, between 1996-2005

Glu: An Online Type 1 Diabetes Information Community

This research paper examines the online health community Glu (MyGlu.org), a type 1 diabetes social media site. Type 1 diabetes is a chronic medical condition that requires constant and specialized medical attention. Online health communities like Glu, are an important part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle for many of its members. This study discusses the composition of this information community, the motivations of its members, and the benefits members gain through their participation. It describes the major characteristics of the community and focuses on the information needs of type 1 diabetics. It concludes with reflections on how libraries and LIS professionals can better serve the information needs of health communities like Glu and accommodate their needs in the physical space of the library