Grassroots Innovations

Journal article: Transitions to renewable energy and communities in Highlands and Islands

Ambitious government and utility targets for renewable energy as part of a ‘low carbon transition’ mean that the winds and waves of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland have a new found value. The region is becoming a site for large renewable energy projects, as well as opening up opportunities for local communities to develop … Continue reading »

PhD: Crisis Currencies: Sustainable Consumption in an Era of Economic Downturn (Phedeas Stephanides)

Phedeas’s PhD research focuses on how the economic crisis influences grassroots civil action for sustainability. It aims to investigate the impacts and effects of the downturn on complementary currency networks and the associated practices of the actors involved. PhD (2012-2015) supervised by Gill Seyfang and Tom Hargreaves at the University of East Anglia Overview: Discussions about … Continue reading »

Teaching about Grassroots Innovations

Grassroots innovations are, by definition, trying to create new, more sustainable systems in society. These could be food systems, energy systems, transport systems, housing systems, money systems, etc. They embody a model of social change that sees society as being structured by social, economic, political and technological systems. This is fundamentally different to individualistic models … Continue reading »

Grassroots Innovations at New Economics summer institute

Gill Seyfang is one of a core faculty team teaching about Grassroots Innovations and Sustainability Transitions at the Second Annual Summer Institute in New Economics hosted by the Wingspread Retreat Center, Wind Point, WI (USA) August 12-18, 2013. Dire ecological news and the failures of the global economy are fuelling interest in a “new economics” grounded in … Continue reading »

GI briefing 18: The Rise of Citizen Power Plants in Germany

The Rise of Citizen Power Plants in Germany: How do they emerge and spread? Anna Schreuer reports on her research into citizen power in Germany which provides an informative comparison with CISE’s work on community energy in the UK and Finland. Here she provides an introduction to citizen power in Germany and discusses its emergence … Continue reading »

Journal article: Connecting regimes and practices in innovation for sustainability

The multilevel perspective and social practice theory have emerged as competing approaches for understanding the complexity of sociotechnical change. The relationship between these two different camps has, on occasions, been antagonistic, but we argue that they are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, through empirical analysis of two different case studies of sustainability innovation, we show that … Continue reading »

New book: Innovations in Sustainable Consumption

Sabine Hielscher, Gill Seyfang and Adrian Smith from the CISE project have a chapter in a new book on Innovations in Sustainable Consumption. The chapter explains how the project studies community initiatives in the UK as providing a ‘niche space’ for innovation in sustainable energy services. The book, edited by Maurie J. Cohen, Halina Szejnwald … Continue reading »

Book chapter: Exploring niche development processes among community energy initiatives

Sabine Hielscher, Gill Seyfang and Adrian Smith from the CISE project have a chapter in a new book on Innovations in Sustainable Consumption. Hielscher, S., Seyfang, G. and Smith, A. (2013) ‘Grassroots Innovations for Sustainable Energy: Exploring niche development processes among community energy initiatives’ in Cohen, M., Brown, H. and Vergragt, P. (eds)Innovations in Sustainable … Continue reading »

Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust: An Innovation History

January 2013, Sabine Hielscher. The Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust is a company limited by guarantee with a charitable status, consisting of an elected board of directors to represent the Isle of Gigha residents. Since its inception, the Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust has created three subsidiary trading companies, which operate the island’s commercial activities … Continue reading »

Carbon Rationing Action Groups: An Innovation History

January 2013, Sabine Hielscher. Carbon Rationing Action Groups (CRAGs) are community-based groups who agree to reduce their carbon emissions through the creation of carbon targets. The members of each CRAG decide a carbon target per person at the beginning of the ‘carbon year’ and the price per kg of carbon. Over the year each member … Continue reading »

Grassroots Innovations

researching sustainability from the bottom up

Complementary Currencies for Sustainability (GICC)

Community Innovation for Sustainable Energy (CISE)

Experiments in Alternative Technology