Wednesday 21 February 2018

Handbook on the geographies of energy

I just received my copy of this new book, in which I co-wrote a chapter - Energy, water and food: towards a critical nexus approach - with Haley Leck (KCL) and Daniel Fitzpatrick (Aston University). The book addresses the changing geographies and landscapes of energy production, distribution and use. The books is published by Edward Elgar, and you can find out more here.

In our chapter, Energy, water and food: towards a critical nexus approach, Hayley, Daniel and I address the ways in which geographers have engaged with and critiqued the nexus concept. As many will know, the nexus approach takes its lead from the observation that energy-water-food issues are interlinked, so solutions and actions need to account for all three at once. In particular, we discuss the ways in which the integrative nature of the nexus approach and geographical approaches are well-suited, but also the ways in which nexus approaches run the risk of depoliticising climate change and associated resource issues. 

You can read a pre-published version of the chapter here.


Public engagement item in the LSE Impact Blog

The LSE Impact Blog has just published a short article on the findings of the Factors Affecting Public Engagement by Researchers project. This was funded by a consortium of 15 UK funders, led by Wellcome Trust, and conducted by TNS-BMRB (now Kantar) and myself. The article summarises the findings and provides links to more detailed reports and papers. I wrote the blog with Chloe Sheppard (Wellcome Trust) and Jenni Chambers (RCUK).

The research suggests that large majorities of researchers have participated in public engagement and are broadly positive about it, while institutions are also shown to be supportive. However, a lack of time, opportunities, funding, and reward are cited as constraints. Meanwhile, public engagement appears more firmly embedded in the arts, humanities and social sciences than it is among STEM researchers. The provision of effective, accessible training is found to be an important precursor to participation in public engagement. The article offers some tactical responses to the findings, but also asks some more challenging questions.

Read the blog here.

Photo credit: Brain Games, Cardiff University.

Tuesday 6 February 2018

Talk for the Communities Prepared National Group

Making the most community resilience

On Tuesday 30-01-18, I did a talk called ‘Making the most of community resilience’, at a meeting of the Communities Prepared National Group (CPNG), which is run by the Civil Contingencies Secretariat in the Cabinet Office. CPNG meets a couple of times a year, and its purpose is to support the development and local implementation of community resilience policy across England by sharing good practice, advising government and identifying opportunities for collaboration. CPNG meetings are attended by representatives of government departments, the devolved administrations and lots of Local Resilience Forums around the country (largely people working on resilience and emergency planning in local authorities).

My talk drew on my work on the Urban Heat project, which was funded by Joseph Rowntree Foundation, as well as more recent thinking. The talk focused on working with the voluntary and community sector (VCS), on planning in particular. Above all, the purpose of my talk was to emphasise the huge untapped potential that resides in the VCS in terms of in-depth grassroots knowledge, as well as capacity and capability. I also focused on the value of seeing collaboration with the VCS as a collaboration of equals, and characterised by mutual learning and empowerment. It is clear that statutory bodies often find it challenging to work with the VCS, so I also highlighted a few issues that I feel are important in terms of process, for instance, making sure that differences in agency, types of expertise and ways of working are accounted for.

Links and contacts:

More about Urban Heat and community resilience here.

More about the government’s approach to community resilience here.

Contact me about community resilience: kevinwburchell@gmail.com 

Contact the Cabinet Office about community resilience: community.resilience@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk

Healthy Parent Carers Programme

I am really excited and proud to be working - as an Assistant Facilitator - on the Healthy Parent Carer Programme, which is run by PenCRU at...