TIME | 10 February 2011, 4pm onwards
LOCATION | CSAFE Seminar Room, , Dunedin
SPEAKER | Janet Stephenson & Maria Ioannou
Energy supply has long been seen as a ‘hard science’ research area, but social science also has much to offer. This talk discusses research carried out for EECA in 2010. Our starting point was EECA’s perception that there may be an increasing lack of acceptance by the public of New Zealand for new renewable electricity generation, particularly wind and hydro developments. We report on some of our findings as to trends over the past 10 years. Drawing from stakeholder interviews and from international literature, we discuss some of the less obvious causes of tensions, and suggest how greater social acceptability might be achieved.
Dr Janet Stephenson is a Senior Research Fellow at CSAFE. She is the co-leader of the 3-year “Energy Cultures” research programme, which is an interdisciplinary project investigating household energy behavior. She is also involved in research on the management of resources in which Maori have a particular interest. She also writes on landscapes and is interested in the tensions between windfarms and landscape values. She is a founding trustee of the National Energy Research Institute and a member of the Otago Energy Research Centre.
Maria Ioannou has an MSc in City Design and Social Science, London School of Economics, and has considerable experience in public policy in England and the European Union. During the first part of 2010 she worked on the Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy Developments research project. She is currently working as the coordinator for the Energy Cultures research programme at CSAFE.