Tuesday and Wednesday this week brought the opportunity for great discussions about how to approach the challenges of reducing energy use, decarbonising electricity generation and transmission - and tackling inequalities in terms of access to energy. Talks ranged from the very technical to the sociological, addressing every level of concern from local to international. The poster I presented - of work with Dr. Jenny Rogers and colleagues from the University of Cumbria - was very well received - lots of questions and interest in the use of Action Research in energy studies. The poster focused on 3 rural "energy communities" in Cumbria - each of which was seeking a more sustainable - and affordable - solution to its energy needs.
Using Action Research to understand change in energy practices
Direct and indirect energy consumption rarely results from people taking conscious decisions about ‘energy’ – instead most consumption tends to be shaped by lifestyle decisions, determined by norms for attitude and behaviour and individual aspirations, values, habits and socio-economic circumstances. From this perspective, understanding socio-cultural environments and processes - and how they may be altered - is key to achieving goals of transition to low carbon energy systems.
This paper proposes that action research (AR) offers an appropriate philosophy and tools for this task and explains why, providing examples of how AR approaches could be used in this field. Firstly, energy practices and the influences of social context in a given situation are inherently complex and unique – they are not amenable to study via controlled comparisons and potential for generalisation is limited. AR philosophy acknowledges this, beginning from the premise that people are reflective actors and hence that solutions to social problems are likely to be highly context specific. Secondly, AR is concerned not only with generating social science, but also social change – it is underpinned by the principle of ‘learning by doing’, achieved through successive cycles of observation, planning, action and reflection. Thirdly, AR methods are underpinned by the principle of democracy – research should be carried out ‘with rather than on’ participants, who are involved in shaping the research agenda and ensure the process generates knowledge of relevance to their own needs and interests.
AR has rarely been used to study energy practices, being more typically undertaken in health and social care, community development or education situations where there are clear normative goals, e.g. improving public health. However, the recent emergence of numerous grassroots sustainability initiatives aiming to create favourable social contexts for change to more sustainable energy practices suggests this is a normative goal for many people, which they have independently identified as relevant to their own lives. The principles of AR listed above have clear synergies with such initiatives and provide an appropriate framework for working with participants to understand their particular influence. We discuss practical approaches to using AR methods in this type of setting.
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