Community versus local energy in a context of climate emergency

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Research via the DOI in this record.UK policy on decentralized energy has shifted from community energy to local energy. This signals reduced support for grassroots, citizen-led action in favour of institutional partnerships and company-led investments, which puts at risk the urgent, long-term social and technological transformations required in a climate emergency

People's perceptions and classifications of sounds heard in urban parks : semantics, affect and restoration

Sounds have been broadly categorized by researchers into ‘human’, ‘nature’ and ‘mechanical’. It is less clear if the general public define and classify sounds in the same way and which factors influence their classification process. Establishing people’s classification and impression of urban park sounds helps identify their perception and experience of urban parks. This in turn aides the process of defining parks with reference to soundscapes, to produce an appreciated and potentially restorative place. This study involved urban park sounds, identified by park users, being presented in card sorts and survey items. Participants sorted the sounds into similar groups, in reference to a visited park. The terminology, factors involved and classification of the sounds was assessed using multidimensional scaling. Triangulation of the results suggests affect is a key factor in people’s classification process. Participants’ grouped sounds were labelled by affective terms more often than their perceived physical properties. Affective evaluations of each sound produced a similar classification structure as the card sort results. People’s classification structure also varied depending on how restorative they found their urban park. Furthermore schematic recollections played a part with many sounds being ‘expected’. Overall similarities and differences with ‘human’, ‘nature’ and ‘mechanical’ classifications were observed

A critical and empirical analysis of the national-local ‘gap’in public responses to large-scale energy infrastructures

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis (Routledge) via the DOI in this record.A national-local ‘gap’ is often used as the starting point for analyses of public responses to large scale energy infrastructures. We critique three assumptions found in that literature: the public's positive attitudes, without further examining other type of perceptions at a national level; that local perceptions are best examined through a siting rather than place-based approach; that a gap exists between national and local responses, despite a non-correspondence in how these are examined. Survey research conducted at national and local levels about electricity transmission lines in the UK confirm these criticisms. Results do not support a gap between national and local levels; instead, both differences and similarities were found. Results show the value of adopting a place-based approach and the role of surveys to inform policy making are discussed.This research was supported by the Research Council of Norway (SusGrid Grant No. 207774) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (FlexNet: EP/EO4011X/1). The authors would also like to acknowledge the beneficial comments and advice of their colleagues at the Environment and Sustainability Research Group, Geography, University of Exeter, regarding previous versions of this paper, as well as the helpful comments of the three anonymous reviewers that commented on it. Thanks are also due to colleagues from the SusGrid project, specifically Audun Ruud and Oystein Aas, and the participants in the research, for their contributions to this paper

The Wave Project: Evidencing Surf Therapy for Young People in the UK

Sport and exercise are known to have long-term, positive consequences for the physical and mental health and wellbeing of the individual and society as a whole. In the UK, a quarter of young people experience long-term illness, disability or mental ill-health. However, understanding the impact of surfing on physical and mental health is complex, not least because there are different pathways by which surfing can improve health and wellbeing  including: playing, being in nature, socialising, taking risks and identifying as a surfer. The Wave Project is a UK-wide surf therapy charity which provides vulnerable young people aged 8-21 with an opportunity to surf once a week for six weeks. At The Wave Project, clients ‘do’ surfing with the one-to-one assistance of a volunteer overseen by a surf coordinator. After completing The Wave Project clients are invited to become members of a follow-on Surf Club staffed by volunteers or become a Wave Project volunteer themselves. This paper provides an overview of the Wave Project evaluation programme between 2013-2017. During this period there have been three evaluation phases centred around Wave Project delivery: Spring 2013, Summer 2014-Autumn 2015 and Spring-Summer 2017. Each phase has employed a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods to assess the experience of clients, parents/carers, referrers and Wave Project staff. These methods have included pre- and post-intervention client surveys, focus groups, interviews and log books. The results to-date show that surf therapy can improve the health and wellbeing of vulnerable young people in the UK

Energy colonialism and the role of the global in local responses to new energy infrastructures in the UK: a critical and exploratory empirical analysis

Governments, namely in the global North, are fostering the deployment of large-scale low carbon and associated energy infrastructures (EIs), such as power lines, to mitigate climate change. However, when infrastructures are to be deployed, opposition is often found. Environmental justice—involving issues of distributive and procedural justice and recognition—and associated inter-group relations, has been identified as a key aspect for local opposition. However, research has rarely examined local perceptions of environmental justice and associated practices, such as energy colonialism, within a global perspective. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, we examine if and how different-level intergroup relations and collective narratives shape people's social-psychological and geographical imaginaries and responses to EIs. Focus groups were conducted with community members affected by proposals to construct high-voltage power lines in the UK. Analyses suggest that narratives around England's colonial history—within Britain and beyond Britain—shape responses to EIs.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Towards a better understanding of people’s responses to renewable energy technologies: insights from Social Representations Theory

In the past few years, social research has been examining what contributes to the attitude–behaviour gap in people’s responses to large-scale renewable energy technologies. The NIMBY explanation for the gap has long dominated that area of research, but has also been criticised. Alternative proposals to NIMBY were advanced, but it is still evident that some of those maintain presuppositions of NIMBY and that this area of research needs more integration, namely at a theoretical level. In this paper we argue that to overcome those aspects it is relevant, first, to situate the promotion of renewable energy production as a social change process in today’s societies, and, second, to therefore consider the socio-psychological aspects involved in people’s responses to social change. We discuss specifically how the Theory of Social Representations may help us with that and contribute to a better understanding of people’s responses to renewable energy technologies.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Explaining public preferences for high voltage pylon designs: an empirical study of perceived fit in a rural landscape

In many countries, electricity transmission networks are being upgraded and developed arising from policies aiming to decarbonise energy systems. However, new power lines are often controversial, due to their perceived negative impacts on rural landscapes. Despite the fact that visual impacts are an important element of public objections, to date, little research has analysed public preferences for alternative pylon designs, as well as investigating the social and psychological factors that might explain such preferences. This paper sought to address this gap, informed by research on public acceptance of renewable energy technologies, using a survey conducted with a representative sample of UK adults (n = 1519). The findings indicate that the 'T-pylon' design, winner of a recent competition, was most strongly preferred and the one most perceived to fit with a rural landscape, by comparison to the conventional 'A frame' design and a 'Totem' design shortlisted in the competition. Linear regression analyses indicated three factors that explained perceived fit, regardless of the designs: lower levels of educational attainment, positive general attitudes towards transmission lines and higher levels of trust in National Grid were associated with positive perceptions of fit of the pylons in a rural landscape. Finally, findings concerning public support for diverse mitigation measures indicated that the use of alternative designs was less supported than burying new powerlines underground and routing pylons away from homes and schools. The implications of these results for more sustainable grid networks are discussed.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

The Wave Project: Evidencing Surf Therapy for Young People in the UK

Sport and exercise are known to have long-term, positive consequences for the physical and mental health and wellbeing of the individual and society as a whole. In the UK, a quarter of young people experience long-term illness, disability or mental ill-health. However, understanding the impact of surfing on physical and mental health is complex, not least because there are different pathways by which surfing can improve health and wellbeing  including: playing, being in nature, socialising, taking risks and identifying as a surfer. The Wave Project is a UK-wide surf therapy charity which provides vulnerable young people aged 8-21 with an opportunity to surf once a week for six weeks. At The Wave Project, clients ‘do’ surfing with the one-to-one assistance of a volunteer overseen by a surf coordinator. After completing The Wave Project clients are invited to become members of a follow-on Surf Club staffed by volunteers or become a Wave Project volunteer themselves. This paper provides an overview of the Wave Project evaluation programme between 2013-2017. During this period there have been three evaluation phases centred around Wave Project delivery: Spring 2013, Summer 2014-Autumn 2015 and Spring-Summer 2017. Each phase has employed a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods to assess the experience of clients, parents/carers, referrers and Wave Project staff. These methods have included pre- and post-intervention client surveys, focus groups, interviews and log books. The results to-date show that surf therapy can improve the health and wellbeing of vulnerable young people in the UK

Populism, identities and responses to energy infrastructures at different scales in the United Kingdom: a post-Brexit reflection

Recent socio-political events - such as Brexit - have provoked discussion and uncertainties about the future of the European Union, including European sustainable energy transitions. Nevertheless, not much research in the energy and social science domain has discussed and empirically explored how these socio-political events and related processes - rise in right-wing populism, post-truth politics - are shaped by and impact public beliefs about energy issues and the role of changes in people's different-level identities (local, national, European). In this paper, we discuss the importance of further exploring these ideas in energy social science research. We examine results of the Eurobarometer survey in the time span 2007-2016, and of two different representative surveys of United Kingdom adults, conducted in 2007 and 2012. This data allowed us to explore similarities and differences during this period regarding attitudes and beliefs about high voltage power lines and other energy and climate change related issues at different levels, and associated identities. Results suggest that feelings of belonging to different imaginary communities play out socio-political and psychological intergroup relations. We conclude that the ways that these impact on people's responses regarding energy issues at local, national and European levels represent promising directions for future research.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio