1. From Energy Biographies to Flexible
Energy Systems (FLEXIS)
Prof. Karen Henwood LCRI Low Carbon
Cymru Conference
7th July 2016

2. Energy Biographies (ESRC/EPSRC 2011-15)
• Large scale qualitative
empirical study exploring how
and why people use energy in
everyday life
• Rationale/Background
▫ current levels of energy use are
unsustainable
▫ But transforming how people
use energy individually and
collectively is difficult
▫ Social science research on
energy use needs to find new
opportunities for change
• Innovative study design to harness
cross disciplinary insights and
develop understanding; so
emphasis on intensive
methodological and analytical work
• Identifying specific behaviours
and/or practices that need to
change NOT our focus
• Rather new/interesting kinds of
data on how energy use is
patterned across individual
lifecourses
• Enhances understanding of
embedding of everyday energy
usage & its patterning within wider
systems

3. Energy Biographies as a Qualitative Longitudinal
Study (QLL) : why temporality and biography?
• QLL approaches explore change through time
and accumulate qualitative data that provides
depth and detail
• Explores impact of past experiences and
anticipated futures in enabling & constraining
people’s present routines and habits
• Individual biographical accounts can shed
light on broader patterns of social change

4. Case Sites
Cardiff Case sites:
Ely and Caerau
Peterston-Super-Ely
Lammas Ecovillage
Niche case site
Royal Free Hospital
Workplace case site

5. Interview 1
Themes: community and context, daily routine, life transitions
Activity 1
Participant-generated photos
Interview 2
Themes: changes since interview 1, discussion of pictures generated in activity 1,
follow up on emergent themes from interview 1
Activity 2
Text-prompted photos
Interview 3
Themes: changes since interview 2, discussion of pictures generated in activity 2
discussion of video clips provided by researcher
Energy
Biographies:
Structure of
empirical
work
More information on
each stage available at
http://energybiographies.org/our-project/project-design/

6. EB’s data–enhancing reflections on everyday
energy use (practices)
“Right more gadgets. TV, PVR,
video player, digi-box, daughter
using laptop whilst watching
television. Yeah just the
penetration of electronics into
our lives which kind of we all
know but when you actually put
the spotlight on and take some
photographs it just brings the
impact up.
(Jeremy, 62, Cardiff)

7. EB’s data – practices and identities
“… we do love our patio heater when it’s a
sunny evening but it gets a bit cold and dark
and you can sit out and they’re like probably
the worst things aren’t they? But we love it
well we only use it about five times a year so
it’s OK.”
“Cos we love being outside, we just love that
you can you know go, we were sitting out
there one evening … it was like midnight
and you could have a drink outside still and
it’s so lovely here cos it’s so quiet and
everything so but you wouldn’t have been
able to do it without that so or you would
have been freezing. So that’s our kind of,
we know it’s really bad but we’re still going
to use it.”
“Heating the
Outdoors”
(Lucy,
Peterson-
Super-Ely)

8. Energy Biographies – Overarching Insights
• Energy often intangible and invisible in everyday life – but
brought into view here through methodological innovation
• Focus and attention was re-directed at issues generally not
regarded as important in contemporary studies of energy demand
(psychosocial investments and identities)
▫ Changes in energy use can create concerns about everyday
dependences on energy and about not being able to live a worthwhile
life (LAWL)
▫ LAWL means keeping alive valued identities, desires and relationships
with others
▫ Identities are shaped by emotional investments in devices, everyday
practices and also by entanglements with wider infrastructure
• But studying the ‘emotional labour of meaning making’
still in its infancy?

9. To read end of award report:
• http://energybiographies.org/newsblog/energy-biog

10. FLEXIS - Whole Energy System Transformation

11. From Energy Biographies to FLEXIS
Further programme of empirical work with aims to:
•Generate understanding of the complex implications of
proposed FLEXIS technological developments for everyday lives
of diverse communities and publics
•Enable policy-shaping in ways responsive to community and
societal concerns, aspirations and desires
•Develop a responsible research and innovation (RRI) framework
for future energy systems

12. Flexis work packages
• WP1 – enhanced expert
interviews with cultural probes
• WP2 – tracking public
responses to socio-technical
change/interventions within
community settings
• WP3 - deliberative work with
communities and stakeholders
• Possible survey work ….

13. Investigating flexible energy systems
change - social science work packages
• Problem: unintended
consequences of technical
interventions to reduce energy
use – e.g. smart homes
• Social science research indicates
people don’t ‘behave’
• So can we anticipate how people
will make sense of and respond
to innovation – and become
responsive in turn?
• What imaginaries are implicit in
technical interventions?

14. Imaginaries shape…
Our ‘possibility space’
- what is seen as viable
Our ‘issue space’ – what
is seen as desirable
• Energy concerns
▫ Affordability
▫ Decarbonisation
▫ Security
• How energy futures might turn
out
• Scenarios or ‘system states’
• Drivers

15. Expert imaginaries and everyday life
• Expert imaginaries shape particular views of how the
future might turn out
• But qualitative QLL study of everyday life can show
how everyday practices and identities may obstruct
or facilitate change
• This can help innovation become more responsive to
the concerns, aspirations and desires of individuals
and communities

16. Current Case Studies :
• FLEXIS engineering projects - to explore future
visions
• Bridgend/Upper Llynfi Valley district heating
schemes
• Lammas ecovillage – experiences of living with
radical energy system change

17. Relevant Publications and Presentations
• Thomas, G., Groves, C., Henwood, K., and Pidgeon, N. (in press) Texturing waste: Attachment and identity in
everyday consumption and waste practices”, Environmental Values
• Groves, C., Henwood, K.L., Shirani, F., Butler, C., Parkhill, K.A., and Pidgeon, N. (2016). "The grit in the oyster:
questioning socio-technical imaginaries through biographical narratives of engagement with energy." Journal of
Responsible Innovation, DOI: 10.1080/23299460.2016.1178897
• Groves, C., Henwood, K.L., Shirani, F., Butler, C., Parkhill, K.A., and Pidgeon, N. (2016) Invested in
unsustainability? On the psychosocial patterning of engagement in practices.’ Environmental Values 25(3):
309-328.
• Groves, C., Henwood, K.L., Shirani, F., Butler, C., Parkhill, K.A., and Pidgeon, N. (2015) Energy biographies:
narrative genres, lifecourse transitions and practice change, Science, Technology and Human Values, DOI:
10.1177/0162243915609116.
• Shirani, F., Parkhill, K., Butler, C., Groves, C., Henwood, K., Pidgeon, N. (2015) Asking about the future:
methodological insights from energy biographies." International Journal of Social Research
Methodology, DOI: 10.1080/13645579.2015.1029208
• Recent presentations
▫ ‘Energy, Biographies and Demand Reduction’, Hubnet Smart Grid Symposium 2015: The Future of
Network Infrastructure, September 19th 2015
▫ ‘How Energy Matters’, St Andrews Energy and Ethics conference, 17-18 March 2016
▫ ‘Energy biographies, psychosocial research and sustainable living’, British Sociological Association Annual
Conference, Aston University, Birmingham, April 6-8th 2016
▫ ‘The grit in the oyster: questioning socio-technical imaginaries’, DEMAND Centre Conference, Lancaster
University, 13-15 April 2016
▫ “Interpretive risk research”, Society for Risk Analysis Europe, Bath 20-22 June 2016

18. henwoodk@cardiff.ac.uk
Energybiographies.org
Other team Members: Professor Nick Pidgeon, Dr
Chris Groves & Dr Fiona Shirani (Cardiff)