Middlemiss, L orcid.org/0000-0001-5185-2033 (2020) Energy poverty: Understanding and addressing systemic inequalities. In: Galvin, R, (ed.) Inequality and Energy: How Extremes of Wealth and Poverty in High Income Countries Affect CO2 Emissions and Access to Energy. Academic Press , London, UK , pp. 99-114. ISBN 978-0-12-817674-0
Abstract
In this chapter I document the emergence of a socially systemic approach to understanding and addressing energy poverty. This approach, which has grown out of studies of the lived experience of energy poverty, understands energy poverty as a fundamentally social phenomenon, which has emerged from a range of policy agendas (energy, welfare, health, housing), and conceives of this systemically, emphasizing the multiple causal interconnections between a wide variety of drivers and outcomes of energy poverty. Here I characterize this socially systemic understanding, drawing on work on the lived experience of energy poverty in the UK, and the politics of energy poverty policy in a range of European nations. A socially systemic understanding of energy poverty has three key facets: (1) energy poverty has to be understood in the context of social, physical and technological conditions; (2) people's experiences are affected by intersecting challenges according to these conditions; and (3) the nature and the progression of these challenges is variable over time. This suggests a need for a politics of energy poverty that embraces the multi-dimensional experience of the energy poor, and that reaches beyond a narrowly focused energy poverty policy.
Metadata
Item Type: | Book Section |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Editors: |
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Keywords: | Energy poverty; Socially systemic; Lived experience; Politics |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 10 Jan 2020 14:37 |
Last Modified: | 10 Jan 2020 14:37 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Academic Press |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/B978-0-12-817674-0.00005-9 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:155464 |