Research
Current Research Projects
Understanding the Dynamics of Domestic Electricity Supply, Consumption and Demand Reduction (EPSRC Top and Tail Grand Challenge)
Innovative ways need to be found of fostering a transition to low carbon, secure, affordable energy systems. Efforts need to focus not only on low carbon forms of energy production, but on ways by which people can reduce their energy consumption in everyday life, including in the home. A key consideration here will be support for people in the uptake of innovative electricity supply technologies. This PhD project will be linked to the EPSRC ‘Top and Tail’ Grand Challenge Network, drawing also upon concepts and methodologies being developed as part of the group’s ESRC project (“Energy Biographies” under the RCUK Energy and Communities Program). The project is in collaboration with the School of Engineering in Cardiff University.
Scenarios for the Development of Smart Grids in the UK
October 2011 – September 2013)
Smart Grids offer the potential to transform the ways we produce, deliver, consume and think about energy. This project, which is funded by the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC), aims to advance understanding of Smart Grid roll-out and use through a programme of novel empirical research, developing and evaluating a number of socio-technical scenarios. The project will use expert and public workshops and surveys to develop and evaluate a set of scenarios for the roll-out of smart grids across the UK.
Transforming the UK Energy System: Public Values, Attitudes and Acceptability
(January 2011 - December 2012)
This project is funded by the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) and NERC as part of the Research Council UK's (RCUK) Energy Programme. Using different future energy system scenarios as a starting point, this project aims to build knowledge of public views on whole energy system transformation, in order to inform the policymaking process and provide research evidence on how publics engage with notions of low carbon transitions.
Integrated Assessment of Geoengineering Proposals, IAGP
(November 2010 - November 2014)
Funded through a joint initiative with EPSRC and NERC this project aims to provide evidence and tools which will enable society to explore and evaluate the feasibility of geoengineering proposals. The Cardiff University teams’ role is to elicit and examine public perceptions of geoengineering.
Energy Biographies: Understanding the Dynamics of Energy Use for Energy Demand Reduction
(October 2010 - July 2013).
This research is funded through the ESRC and EPSRC through the ‘Energy and Communities collaborative venture’ as part of Research Council UK's (RCUK) Energy Programme. This project will break new research ground by using innovative qualitative methods (longitudinal research, sensory methods) to look closely at how our energy consuming practices can be illuminated through use of the conceptual themes of biography and lifecourse.
Climate Change Adaptation Knowledge Transfer Adviser
(Sept 2010 - August 2012)
The Welsh Assembly Government, in partnership with Cardiff University, are supporting a new post, providing advice and support to public sector organisations, businesses and communities in relation to climate change impacts and adaptation. The post also interfaces these activities with those of the Climate Change Consortium for Wales (C3W).
ESRC Leader Fellowships on Climate Change Competition
(October 2008-September 2010)
Public Perceptions of Climate Change and Energy Futures in Britain
(October 2008 - December 2010)
Complementing the Climate Change and Energy Choices project, this project will consist of a large nationwide quantitative survey conducted in Britain to examine public perceptions of climate change and various energy options. This project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
Awareness and Perceptions of the Risks of Exposure to Radon in Homes
(July 2007 - March 2010)
This project aims to examine the way in which differentially affected groups react to the risks of radon in their own homes, and how this interacts with the wider social and institutional context. This project is funded by the Health Protection Agency.
Climate Change and Energy Choices
(January 2007 - December 2011)
This project aims to empirically investigate the extent to which citizens understand, conceptualise, and respond to the new and emerging spectrum of framings of energy policy. This project is funded by the Leverhulme Trust.
Risk Perception and Social Response to Nanotechnologies
(January 2006 - December 2015)
Funded through two major centre grants from the US National Science Foundation to the Center for Nanotechnology in Society, University of California, Santa Barbara, Cardiff are full partners in a working group of the centre, investigating risk perception and public responses.
Public and Expert Attitudes to Low-carbon Transport Options
(August 2009 – October 2011)
This research is funded by the ESRC Centre for Business Relationships, Accountability, Sustainability & Society (BRASS), and the FP7 project REACT. It uses a mixed-methods approach to examine acceptability of different low-carbon transport technologies and policies (e.g., electric vehicles, congestion charging) and willingness to change travel behaviours amongst different groups.
Climate Change Communication and Scepticism
(April 2009 – )
This research was initially funded by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and is now supported by the School of Psychology. It has involved public survey work and laboratory experiments to understand how the public perceive and process information about climate change. There has been a particular focus on the forms of uncertainty and scepticism expressed by the public, and the reasons for and impacts of this uncertainty and scepticism.
Current PhD Projects
Catherine Cherry - Decarbonisation in the home: how is it framed and understood by policy-makers and the public?
Households account for roughly a third of carbon output in developed societies, and substantial emission reductions can be made with currently available technologies and without major economic sacrifices. Yet this potential remains largely untapped, and has done for decades. Clearly the problem is not solely one of technical feasibility or cost-effectiveness, but also one of communication and understanding. We need to know more about how technologies and practices for home-decarbonisation are framed and understood by different actors. This project seeks to develop this understanding, drawing on mixed research methods and different theoretical lenses, with three key stages: (1) an assessment of the discourse surrounding sustainable housing in the UK, (2) an analysis of how the public understand and think about practices and technologies for home decarbonisation and (3) consideration of how to encourage and achieve reductions in carbon emissions at the household-level based on these analyses.
Innovative ways need to be found of fostering a transition to low carbon, secure, affordable energy systems. Efforts need to focus not only on low carbon forms of energy production, but on ways by which people can reduce their energy consumption in everyday life, including in the home. A key consideration here will be support for people in the uptake of innovative electricity supply technologies. This PhD project will be linked to the EPSRC ‘Top and Tail’ Grand Challenge Network, drawing also upon concepts and methodologies being developed as part of the group’s ESRC project (“Energy Biographies” under the RCUK Energy and Communities Program). The project is in collaboration with the School of Engineering in Cardiff University.
Erin Roberts -
Merryn Thomas - Public perception to the risks of sea-level rise in the severn estuary
My background is in natural hazards and geography, and my research interests concern risks and people’s perceptions of them. I am particularly interested in the risks posed by climate change and sea level rise. My PhD studies are about the public responses to sea-level rise and extreme events on the Severn Estuary.
My research focuses on the public perception of risk associated with ecosystem change and the alignment of that perception with the probability of such change for the UK’s freshwater pearl mussel (Margaritifera margaritifera). The aim of this research is to engage the public in decision making process of catchment management.
My research is concerned with the representation of climate change in civic discourse. In particular how these representations are used to make climate change meaningful as a concept within civic discourse. With a focus on advertising as a pervasive form of civic discourse that is focused on public persuasion. The research aims to identify the most frequently used linguistic and non-linguistic representational features in advertising that make climate change a recognisable discourse. Identifying the way these features are used to make climate change meaningful can improve understanding of their use in future climate change communications.
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