Necessary energy uses and a minimum standard of living in the United Kingdom:energy justice or escalating expectations?

Walker, Gordon Peter and Simcock, Neil David and Day, Rosie (2016) Necessary energy uses and a minimum standard of living in the United Kingdom:energy justice or escalating expectations? Energy Research and Social Science, 18. pp. 129-138. ISSN 2214-6296

[thumbnail of Necessary_energy_uses_and_energy_justice_final_submitted_July15]
Preview
PDF (Necessary_energy_uses_and_energy_justice_final_submitted_July15)
Necessary_energy_uses_and_energy_justice_final_submitted_July15.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs.

Download (253kB)

Abstract

Access to affordable energy is a core dimension of energy justice, with recent work examining the relation between energy use and well-being in these terms. However, there has been relatively little examination of exactly which energy uses should be considered basic necessities within a given cultural context and so of concern for energy justice. We examine the inclusion of energy-using necessities within the outcomes of deliberative workshops with members of the public focused on defining a minimum-standard of living in the UK and repeated biannually over a six year period. Our secondary analysis shows that energy uses deemed to be necessities are diverse and plural, enabling access to multiple valued energy services, and that their profile has to some degree shifted from 2008 to 2014. The reasoning involved is multidimensional, ranging across questions of health, social participation, opportunity and practicality. We argue that public deliberations about necessities can be taken as legitimate grounding for defining minimum standards and therefore the scope of ‘doing justice’ in fuel poverty policy. However we set this in tension with how change over time reveals the escalation of norms of energy dependency in a society that on climate justice grounds must radically reduce carbon emissions.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Energy Research and Social Science
Additional Information:
This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Energy Research & Social Science. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Energy Research & Social Science, 18, 2016 DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2016.02.007
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3301
Subjects:
?? ENERGY JUSTICENECESSITIESPUBLIC DELIBERATIONUKRENEWABLE ENERGY, SUSTAINABILITY AND THE ENVIRONMENTENERGY ENGINEERING AND POWER TECHNOLOGYNUCLEAR ENERGY AND ENGINEERINGFUEL TECHNOLOGYSOCIAL SCIENCES (MISCELLANEOUS) ??
ID Code:
78453
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
29 Feb 2016 16:22
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
22 Sep 2023 00:27