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 »
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 »
A Global Community Currency Movement? Unity and Diversity in Practice We present key findings of the GICC (Grassroots Innovations: Community Currencies) project’s analysis of the activities and characteristics of the international community currency movement (November 2012) GI briefing 17 A Global Community Currency Movement?
Community energy has been supported by successive UK governments aiming to harness its potential to support sustainable energy transitions. Our survey of UK community energy groups aims to provide robust evidence of the scope, scale, character, activities and challenges faced by the sector, to support such policymaking. Our research reveals several key issues to be … Continue reading »
Community Currencies and Sustainability: New economics objectives and orientations Community currencies have long been associated with the environmental movement, and in this briefing we identify various sustainability rationales for developing these grassroots innovations. (October 2012) GI briefing 15 Community Currencies and Sustainability
Mapping Community Currencies: Varieties and Geographies This briefing presents new empirical evidence from the first international study of the scope and character of community currencies. It identifies the diversity, scale, geography and development trajectory of these initiatives, undertaken as part of the Grassroots Innovation: Complementary Currencies project. (October 2012) GI briefing 14 Mapping Community Currencies
The Global Spread of Community Currencies: International diffusion over the last 30 years We describe the geographical trajectory of grassroots currency movements over the last 30 years based on international scoping work undertaken as part of the Grassroots Innovation: Complementary Currencies project. (October 2012) GI briefing 13: The global spread of community currencies
A new working paper presents results of our survey of community energy projects in the UK. Our survey investigates the objectives, origins and development of these groups across the UK, their activities and their networking activities as a sector. We also examine the strengths and weaknesses of these groups, along with the opportunities and threats presented by wider socioeconomic and political contexts, in order to improve understanding of the sector’s potential and the challenges it faces. Continue reading »
Community Energy: Taking stock, moving forwards? The CISE (Community Innovation for Sustainable Energy) project hosts an event to assess the impact of recent policy developments on the community energy sector. (March 2012) Grassroots Innovation Briefings 12: Community Energy: Taking Stock, Moving Forwards?
“Community food projects are not about food, and community energy projects are not about energy” was one of the conclusions from an international workshop of experts on ‘grassroots innovations’. These are initiatives which aim to promote sustainable development from the bottom up, and commonly have broad objectives including community-building and social inclusion, as well as … Continue reading »
