22 research outputs found
NUTZUNG VON SOLARSTROMANLAGEN: EIN UMWELTPSYCHOLOGISCHES THEMA
Die Nutzung von Solarstromanlagen ist auch ein psychologisches Thema. Der Sozial-Design-Ansatz aus der Architekturpsychologie und der Sozio-technische System Design-Ansatz aus der Organisationspsychologie bieten Ansatzpunkte zu ihrer Erforschung und zur UnterstĂŒtzung des nachhaltigen Betriebs. Anhand von zwei Beispielen werden umweltpsychologische Feldstudien und Aktionen vorgestellt, die auf diesem Wissen aufbauen, es weiter vertiefen und zu dessen Verbreitung interdisziplinĂ€r und international beitragen
the role of local governments and citizens
Climate protection activities at the local level play an important role
towards responding effectively to global climate change. The research at hand
deals with the subjectively nominated success factors and barriers relevant to
the implementation of climate protection measures in local municipalities.
Determinants for the transition towards energy sustainable communities
(Schweizer- Ries, 2008) are the subject-matter of a longer research tradition
(Schweizer-Ries, 2009). In order to work out recommendations for a German
federal policy instrument designed to support municipalities towards climate
protection, we chose to concentrate on municipalities having applied for the
above mentioned funding. Some of these municipalities also plan to realise a
process towards âzero-emissionâ as a long-term project. With qualitative
interviews, we assessed in a first research step, how local stakeholders
perceive the climate protection measures inside their municipalities, how they
were successfully implemented, where social barriers appeared and how they
could be minimised. Thus, we were able to collect subjective determinants of
success or failure for zeroemission processes. We also examine the role of the
citizens, and make the case for increased public participation. The main
insights of these first results are that within the administration of local
municipalities, cross-sectional interaction and communication are crucial,
along with the need to engage a socially skilled permanent employee to manage
the implementation of measures and activate external stakeholders. Involving
citizens is pivotal in shaping a zero-emission community identity and reality.
The research is designed to shed some light on the role the above mentioned
financial support programme and therefore serves as policy counselling. The
policy instrument seems to be able to promote most factors of success within
local authorities, only minor adaptations are necessary
Exploring the interaction between social norms and perceived justice of wind energy projects: a qualitative analysis
The deployment of wind energy projects (WEP) within the process of energy transition changes energy landscapes and daily living environments. With regard to social acceptance as one social response towards WEP, the role of different aspects of justice (i.e. procedural, distributive, recognition) has been discussed. This study highlights the importance of social norms and their influence on perceived justice regarding WEP, which has been neglected in the literature so far. The relationship between social norms and perceived justice is explored as a conceptual framework through a systematic literature review and expert interviews. This framework aims to explain how social norms and their relationship with justice are defined, interlinked and how they affect perceptions of WEP. The results argue that social norms surface in situations where all the key elements of a project are decided without public impact. Thus, norms of fairness emerge under uncertain situations with the influence of similar emotions within groups. Moreover, social norms and perceived justice would explain several responses, such as local conflicts, or the motivation to further develop WEP. This study concludes by discussing the applicability of the framework, which needs further analysis as an analytical tool and deeper empirical investigation.This project has received funding from the European Unionâs Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie SkĆodowska-Curie action grant agreement No 813837
Getting emotional or cognitive on social media? Analyzing renewable energy technologies in Instagram posts
Renewable energy development is a widely and intensively discussed topic, though it is still unclear which exactly variables may influence people's evaluation of the phenomenon. There is a need to study the general public's knowledge, emotions, and cognitions linked to energy technologies especially in the context of advanced inventions. Social media is a powerful communication tool which has a huge impact on studying public opinions. This study aims to describe linguistic connections through an analysis of 1500 Instagram posts, assuming and interpreting emotional and/or cognitive words. Using a socio-cognitive approach, this research explores the salient words under a set of pre-specified renewable energy technology (RET) hashtags. Building on the appraisal theories of emotions, this research investigates the coexistence of several energy technologies (solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal) and powerlines. The results showed the highest linguistic interconnection between solar and wind energy posts. Furthermore, powerlines were not linguistically connected to the RETs, as they are not included in the schema or not salient when people write posts about renewable energy. Solar, wind, and geothermal posts evoked more emotional and positive emotions than the other RETs and powerlines. Instead, biomass posts had a high frequency of cognitive processes and causal words. Powerline posts were linked to the words of risk, body, health, and biological process showing a great concern for health and perceived threat. These differences in the words used can be a guide to understanding peoples' reactions and communication for each of the energy sources. This study, taking both emotions and cognitions into account, explains different types of considerations towards energy projects
Beteiligungsprozesse und Entwicklungschancen fĂŒr Kommunen und Regionen
Der Weg zu einer nachhaltigen Energieerzeugung erfordert eine aktive gesellschaftliche Akzeptanz. Auf die BedĂŒrfnisse der BĂŒrger(innen) abgestimmte Beteiligungsformen bieten die Möglichkeit, kreative UnterstĂŒtzungspotentiale zu nutzen und positive Effekte auch auf anderen Ebenen des Gemeindelebens zu erzielen
Inner transformation to sustainability as a deep leverage point: fostering new avenues for change through dialogue and reflection
This article provides a rationale for inner transformation as a key and hitherto underresearched dimension of sustainability transformations. Inner transformation relates to various aspects of human existence and interactions such as consciousness, mindsets, values, worldviews, beliefs, spirituality and human-nature connectedness. The article draws on Meadows\u27 leverage points approach, as places to intervene in a system, to reveal the relevance of inner transformation for system change towards sustainability. Based on insights from a series of dialogue and reflection workshops and a literature review, this article provides three important contributions to sustainability transformations research: first, it increases our conceptual understanding of inner transformation and its relevance for sustainability; second, it outlines concrete elements of the inner transformation-sustainability nexus in relation to leverage points; and third, it presents practical examples illustrating how to work with leverage points for supporting inner transformation. In sum, the paper develops a systematized and structured approach to understanding inner transformation, including the identification of deep, i.e., highly influential, leverage points. In addition, it critically discusses the often contentious and divergent perspectives on inner transformation and shows related practical challenges. Finally, current developments in inner transformation research as well as further research needs are identified
Energy sustainable communities: Environmental psychological investigations
Energy sustainability is becoming an increasing issue--or rather "the" issue in our society. Often it is reduced to a purely technical problem. Renewable energies and energy-efficient technologies are developed to solve the problem, but finally the end-users will "decide" how much and what kind of energy they are going to consume. This article is targeted on showing the environmental psychological aspects of the change of energy demand and supply. It builds upon a transactional model of human technology interchange and summarises environmental psychological work done during more than 5 years. It refers to the idea of energy sustainable communities (ESCs), shows the development of one example community and concentrates on one aspect of the social dimension of ESCs, the "acceptance of renewable energy technology", its definition and measurement in Germany.Sustainable energy communities Public acceptance Environmental psychology
Partizipative Umsetzung von Klimaschutzzielen
Die gesellschaftliche Festlegung von Klimaschutzzielen und deren Umsetzung in praktisches Handeln und in messbare Treibhausgasminderungen ist ein vielschichtiger Prozess. Dabei gibt es sowohl technologische Entwicklungen als auch gesellschaftliche Prozesse, die in Phasen beschrieben werden können
A cooperative of their own: Gender implications on renewable energy cooperatives in Germany
Renewable energy cooperatives are crucial for local communities to initiate energy transition. With a mixed-methodological approach, this paper analyses the participation of women in renewable energy cooperatives in Germany and reveals the socio-cultural barriers. This study presents an intersectional analysis that integrates gender with other socio-cultural categories and identities within the social context of cooperatives. This study presents the results from a sex ratio analysis of energy cooperatives (N=388), online interviews (N=161), and semi-structured interviews (N=9). Results show that a lack of awareness of opportunities, financial resources, and time for volunteer-based workload and the lack of recognition of social inequalities in the cooperatives hinder women from actively taking part in leadership roles. This study concludes by discussing how contribution to localised renewable energy production reflects differently on genders. It also provides suggestions such as mentorship and diversity programs that would allow more women to take management roles and encourage a more inclusive and fair transition for all.European Unionâs Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie SkĆodowska-Curie action grant agreement No 813837 MISTRAL Project