Lead supervisor:
Prof Karen Henwood 
Start date: October 2011
Award: General
Subject Pathway:
Sociology / Science and Technology Studies
Thematic Cluster:
Society and Well-Being Cluster
Reducing Energy Consumption in Everyday Life: A study of landscapes of energy consumption in rural households and communities in North Wales
This study aims to understand those complex social practices that shape energy consumption; how they are emplaced in geographical settings, and how they’ve evolved through time (both through individual life-courses and generational time), informed by sunk investments in domestic infrastructures, and habitual behaviours. I will be employing innovative (narrative, longitudinal and visual) research methods to aid people to think reflexively about the ways they use energy.
This study is linked to the ‘Energy Biographies Project’, and is sponsored by the Welsh Government (Climate Change and Water Division) and Cardiff University’s Sustainable Places Institute. As I am a Welsh speaker, and I will be conducting my fieldwork in North-West Wales, information about my research will be available in both Welsh and English.