Walking with Energy: overcoming energy invisibility through research participation

Project Director: Aimee Ambrose / Project Manager: Stephen Parkes

Project Duration: 2019-2021

The Walking with Energy project brings together oral history techniques, walking interviews and novel psychological tests to offer a highly innovative, creative and low cost method of engaging the public in debates and decisions regarding energy production and consumption.

The contemporary relationship we have with energy is one that is characterised by complete dependency yet coupled with an ‘energy invisibility’ that distances us from our consumption and the associated environmental consequences. We are disengaged from decisions about how energy is generated in terms of modes of generation and types of fuel.

The method deployed in this project offers the potential to overcome energy invisibility and foster greater environmental citizenship amongst participants. Following a successful pilot in the UK, this project – funded by the Swedish Energy  Agency - will apply and develop the method in Sweden using the cities of Lund and Malmö as case studies.

For further information and updates on this project, please see the project website.

The project involves a collaboration between colleagues from Sheffield Hallam, Lund (Sweden), and Nottingham Trent Universities.

The project team also includes Richard Bull (Nottingham Trent University), Jenny Palm (Lund University) and Martin Thirkettle (Sheffield Hallam University).