Project: Climate Change and Energy Choices
This is a Leverhulme Trust funded project co-ordinated by Cardiff University School of Psychology in conjunction with the University of Sheffield (Psychology Department) and the University of East Anglia (Centre for Environmental Risk and the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research).
This project aims to empirically investigate the extent to which citizens are understanding, conceptualising and responding to the new and emerging spectrum of framings of energy policy. In doing so we will also draw upon, and elaborate, social science theory on attitudes, social representations, discourses and risk acceptance; on place, hazard proximity and perceptions of risk; and on the relationship between risk perceptions and trust in institutions. We will investigate a range of case study domains within the course of this project including those of nuclear energy, renewable approaches, conventional fuels, and demand management.
Over four years, this interdisciplinary programme of research will explore the following questions:
Science-Policy Representations and Frames of the Climate-Energy Debate. What are the dominant science and policy discourses and frames for understanding the contemporary energy debate?
Mapping Public Responses and Understandings. How are the British public(s) understanding, conceptualising and responding to the new and emerging spectrum of framings of energy policy: what risks and benefits do they perceive, who do they trust, and what other factors do they see as important in the acceptability of different energy futures?
The Impacts of Proximity. To what extent does proximity (most typically defined in terms of spatial proximity) modify the ways in which energy issues and key frames are interpreted by people?
Deliberating Frames and Making Trade-Offs. To what extent do people recognize, value, buy into, and make tradeoffs between, alternative visions for energy futures, particularly when given sufficient time to deliberate the issues?
Personnel
Cardiff University
Catherine Butler, Karen Parkhill, Nick Pidgeon, Wouter Poortinga, Alexa Spence
University of East Anglia
Jacquie Burgess, Mike Hulme, Irene Lorenzoni, Tee Rogers-Hayden
Sheffield University
Richard Eiser, Chris Jones
Sponsors
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