Abstract
Dominant policy understandings of fuel poverty tend to overlook its lived experience. This results in narrow, technical problem framings that neglect the multiple, inter-related and dynamic factors that shape everyday experiences of energy consumption. Consequently, the concept of energy vulnerability has been used as the basis of recent qualitative work that has begun to recognise the importance of subjective experiences but, to date, emotions have not been central to such analyses. This paper explores a range of emotional engagements with energy vulnerability. The paper draws on new empirical data taken from 16 semi-structured interviews with social housing tenants as well as 10 interviews and a focus group (n=8) with housing association employees. Two broad ways in which emotions shape experiences of energy vulnerability are highlighted. First, how fear, worry and care practices shape patterns of energy use and payment. Second, how care, embarrassment, stigma and trust can facilitate or prevent the receipt of support for energy vulnerable households. Crucially, and for the first time, the paper shows that emotions are not merely a consequence of energy vulnerability but can also contribute to and shape it. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy and research implications of these findings.
Highlights
It is 27 years since the publication of Brenda Boardman’s landmark book on ‘Fuel Poverty: from cold homes to affordable warmth’ (1991)
Fuel poverty is understood as a statistical problem of rates and trends in the population (BEIS, 2018a) rather than as the daily lived experience of individuals
Whilst some might dismiss using energy to care for pets as unnecessary, for those in energy vulnerable situations, as we argue later, the worst cases of energy vulnerability we found were among those who had no apparent relations of care, and the ability to express care for pets is perhaps a key way to avoid social isolation and loneliness
Summary
It is 27 years since the publication of Brenda Boardman’s landmark book on ‘Fuel Poverty: from cold homes to affordable warmth’ (1991). The fuel poverty research community has grown considerably to span multiple disciplines including geography, sociology, psychology, health studies, architecture and engineering as well as business and economics Despite this growth and diversity, much official research and policy continues to conceptualise fuel poverty as resulting from a combination of the three factors which were central to Boardman’s (1991) original work: low income; energy inefficient homes; and high energy costs (e.g. BEIS, 2018a). Whilst drawing important policy attention, this dominant framing serves to reduce fuel poverty to a primarily technical problem in two different ways. Fuel poverty is understood as a statistical problem of rates and trends in the population (BEIS, 2018a) rather than as the daily lived experience of individuals This dominant understanding is technical insofar as the focus on energy efficiency lends itself towards technical solutions. Much more work is required to fully develop the emotional geography of energy vulnerability, and to explore its relevance in different parts of the world, but we hope this paper makes a start in building this new agenda
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