I am a Professor of Energy Policy in CRESR. I have a background in a mixture of social science and the built environment and my research is concerned with how energy and climate related policy (particularly relating to domestic carbon reduction) impacts lived experience in often unanticipated ways and I use non-traditional qualitative methods to explore this. I am well known in my field and work internationally and currently collaborate with, amongst others, academics in Sweden, Romania, Finland and Australia. I also aim to use my research to effect positive changes to relevant areas of policy and practice. I have led more than 30 research projects and have authored over 30 peer reviewed articles in my area of expertise. I currently lead four main programmes of work, relating to: social and cultural responses to heating change, high consumption, decarbonising off grid homes and I am also working on a book entitled ‘Was the Past More Sustainable?’

My research seeks to understand the (un)intended impacts of energy policies on everyday life and how they vary between different social groups, places and between different household members. I use these insights to promote more just and inclusive energy and climate policy that is responsive to diverse lived experiences.

To this end, I use ethnographic methods such as oral history and walking methods to enable deeper understanding of the social and cultural challenges associated with domestic energy transitions and carbon reduction.

I work internationally and collaborate with partners in Sweden, Finland, Romania, Australia and New Zealand. I also work with policy makers and policy influencers to embed the new knowledge I create. Reflecting my commitment to knowledge exchange and academic citizenship, I co-founded the Fuel Poverty Research Network (FPRN), an international research funding and knowledge exchange charity in 2016 and from 2017, helped establish the Technology Collaboration Programme on hard to reach energy users by the International Energy Agency. I now co-lead the Fuel Poverty Evidence project which seeks to fast-track academic evidence on fuel poverty and allied topics into policy decision making.

I am currently leading four main programmes of work:

• Justheat: A social and cultural history of home heating (funded by the Collaboration of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Europe -CHANSE)
• High consumers: understanding factors that drive and perpetuate over consumption (various funders including the South Yorkshire Sustainability Centre).
• Decarbonising off grid communities: Finding viable solutions to decarbonise off grid homes that are also acceptable to occupants (funded by the Energy Innovation Centre).
• Was the Past More Sustainable? An exploration of what the past can teach us about how to achieve an environmentally sustainable and fairer future (funded by the South Yorkshire Sustainability Centre).

Research interests:

• lived experience of energy and climate policy
• domestic energy efficiency
• citizen engagement with energy policy
• lived experiences of fuel poverty and policy responses
• non-traditional qualitative research methods
• energy inefficiency in private rented sector housing.