Caroline is a sustainability researcher at the University of Bristol. Her most recent work with the Cabot Institute brought together, through the Bristol Green Capital Partnership, academics and city thinkers to explore the sustainable future of Bristol. Earlier research, at Bristol and previously UWE, centred on grassroots and cross-sectoral responses to issues of energy, climate change, public health and sustainability in urban environments.
Today, when undertaking requirements elicitation, engineers attend to the needs and wants of the ... more Today, when undertaking requirements elicitation, engineers attend to the needs and wants of the user groups considered relevant for the software system. However, answers to some relevant questions (e.g., how to improve adoption of the intended system) cannot always be addressed through direct need and want elicitation. Using an example of energy demand-response systems, this paper demonstrates that use of grounded theory analysis can help address such questions. The theories emerging from such analysis produce a set of additional requirements which cannot be directly elicited from individuals/groups, and would otherwise be missed. Thus, we demonstrate that the theories generated through grounded theory analysis can serve as additional valuable sources of requirements for software and its wider system. This paper extends our previous work by demonstrating how several theories can be constructed and utilised for a single system analysis.
An overview of how research findings can be used to improve local policy/service delivery whoever... more An overview of how research findings can be used to improve local policy/service delivery whoever might be providing the service. Possible mechanisms for influence draw on experiences in working with Bristol and the South West - for example through supporting local Health Impact Assessments, and holding regular Healthy Community Research Fora and other events to engage cross-sectorally. Also, involvement of local practitioner partners in projects and developing / sharing tailored educational materials for topical issues through knowledge exchange programmes. Ensuring that research is presented and published in a variety of forms to maximise accessibility.
It is widely accepted that climate change, obesity, community infrastructure, air quality and noi... more It is widely accepted that climate change, obesity, community infrastructure, air quality and noise pollution are all linked to health risks. However, evidence also shows that each is impacted on by the form of the built environment, and as such, the built environment is seen as an important ‘wider determinant of health’. The professionals responsible for our built environment therefore need to understand the consequences of their actions on public health and be aware of their ability to influence the health and well being of the population. Consequently, educational institutions need to be equipped to deliver such health-aware planners, urban designers, architects, and landscape- and transport-professionals. This article reflects on initiatives at the University of the West of England to bring together educational practitioners to support the health agenda in built environment curricula and to introduce health into the architectural curriculum as a major driver for sustainable design.
In the face of climate change, the UK has set concrete goals to decarbonise energy systems. Assoc... more In the face of climate change, the UK has set concrete goals to decarbonise energy systems. Associated strategies include increasing electrification of residential heating and transport and the substitution of fossil fuel energy sources with renewables. These entail expensive infrastructure reinforcements to support increased peak loads. Energy demand management can help mitigate this anticipated load increase. Capacity-based pricing is a mechanism to incentivise energy demand management by charging for a maximum power draw as opposed to the volume of consumed energy. In this text we use a persona technique to study how user needs drive the typical energy services that compose the aggregate power draw in a family home. We use this to reflect on user feedback (obtained through a demand shifting workshop with 10 participants) to discuss the factors that would allow excessive power demand to be shifted away from peak demand times, thus reducing the maximum draw. Subsequently, the role ...
This report presents the findings of a one-year study that has explored how Bristol Pound (Bristo... more This report presents the findings of a one-year study that has explored how Bristol Pound (Bristol£) has used informal governance as a leadership asset to effect progressive social change at city level. Informal governance is the undocumented interaction that actors often use behind the scenes in pursuit of objectives. Informal working can shape policy-making and city leadership in both positive and negative ways. On the one hand, it can assist in addressing political and policy problems which cannot be solved by traditional government institutions, leading to more effective, inclusive and innovative decision-making. On the other, it can weaken transparency, accountability and legitimacy by undermining traditional (more formal) administrative structures.
For small and medium-sized organisations and initiatives that respond to climate change with soci... more For small and medium-sized organisations and initiatives that respond to climate change with socially oriented business models, formal government policies and laws do not necessarily provide the most effective support for their way of working. ‘Green’ social enterprises often develop bottom-up perspectives that do not fit well with the frameworks of existing regulation, or the expectations of existing professional advice and support.
This article argues that developments relating to the legal form of social enterprises connect cl... more This article argues that developments relating to the legal form of social enterprises connect climate change policy and social policy in creative ways. We explore how legal form can foster practices of eco-sociality that reconfigure the relationship between profit and social goals within an enterprise. The article mounts a case for the importance of legal form from three angles. First, it locates the salience of legal form in the context of broader political currents, particularly the 'new politics of climate change'. Secondly, we bring a consideration of legal form to the exploration of social enterprise, making explicit some key assumptions underlying the borderline between 'social' and 'economic'. Thirdly, we reconnect the seemingly technical concerns of legal form with broader issues of space, place, and identity. Our argument for the importance of a diversity of legal forms as a social policy issue connected to issues of sustainability draws on comparative empirical fieldwork conducted in the UK and Australia.
The effects of the urban environment upon health and wellbeing are profound and are likely to cha... more The effects of the urban environment upon health and wellbeing are profound and are likely to change in the face of future environmental challenges such as climate change…… Using current knowledge, the adverse health effects of an urban environment can be offset by forethought in planning, to take account of the interactions of environmental and lifestyle factors that can influence health (p53)
This guide is aimed at all built environment educators, showing what the key issues are in terms ... more This guide is aimed at all built environment educators, showing what the key issues are in terms of improving health understanding in the built environment professions. It will explain the relevance, show how the built environment impacts on health and its implications for education and provide examples of good practice in teaching. By making these connections, graduates should be emerging into the workplace with a good understanding of the health impacts of their professional work and be equipped with techniques and examples to help ...
PROJECT: Journal of the Department of Planning and Architecture, 2012
The WHO Collaborating Centre is a founder member of HAVEN, a European consortium of universities ... more The WHO Collaborating Centre is a founder member of HAVEN, a European consortium of universities and healthy cities set up to provide academic support to the European Healthy City Network (EHCN). In order to identify which 'healthy city'goals and activities have the most potential for support and collaboration, a survey was carried out across the whole network of 84 cities. It asked who their key partners were and what sort of knowledge and academic input they needed to enable them to best achieve the aims of the WHO Healthy ...
Rapid, unplanned, unsustainable patterns of urban development and continuing urbanisation of the ... more Rapid, unplanned, unsustainable patterns of urban development and continuing urbanisation of the population have always made cities in the developing nations focal points for many emerging environmental and health hazards (WHO, 2002a). The public heath issues of waste disposal, provision of safe water and sanitation and injury prevention are familiar issues at the interface between urban inequalities, environment and health.
Today, when undertaking requirements elicitation, engineers attend to the needs and wants of the ... more Today, when undertaking requirements elicitation, engineers attend to the needs and wants of the user groups considered relevant for the software system. However, answers to some relevant questions (e.g., how to improve adoption of the intended system) cannot always be addressed through direct need and want elicitation. Using an example of energy demand-response systems, this paper demonstrates that use of grounded theory analysis can help address such questions. The theories emerging from such analysis produce a set of additional requirements which cannot be directly elicited from individuals/groups, and would otherwise be missed. Thus, we demonstrate that the theories generated through grounded theory analysis can serve as additional valuable sources of requirements for software and its wider system. This paper extends our previous work by demonstrating how several theories can be constructed and utilised for a single system analysis.
An overview of how research findings can be used to improve local policy/service delivery whoever... more An overview of how research findings can be used to improve local policy/service delivery whoever might be providing the service. Possible mechanisms for influence draw on experiences in working with Bristol and the South West - for example through supporting local Health Impact Assessments, and holding regular Healthy Community Research Fora and other events to engage cross-sectorally. Also, involvement of local practitioner partners in projects and developing / sharing tailored educational materials for topical issues through knowledge exchange programmes. Ensuring that research is presented and published in a variety of forms to maximise accessibility.
It is widely accepted that climate change, obesity, community infrastructure, air quality and noi... more It is widely accepted that climate change, obesity, community infrastructure, air quality and noise pollution are all linked to health risks. However, evidence also shows that each is impacted on by the form of the built environment, and as such, the built environment is seen as an important ‘wider determinant of health’. The professionals responsible for our built environment therefore need to understand the consequences of their actions on public health and be aware of their ability to influence the health and well being of the population. Consequently, educational institutions need to be equipped to deliver such health-aware planners, urban designers, architects, and landscape- and transport-professionals. This article reflects on initiatives at the University of the West of England to bring together educational practitioners to support the health agenda in built environment curricula and to introduce health into the architectural curriculum as a major driver for sustainable design.
In the face of climate change, the UK has set concrete goals to decarbonise energy systems. Assoc... more In the face of climate change, the UK has set concrete goals to decarbonise energy systems. Associated strategies include increasing electrification of residential heating and transport and the substitution of fossil fuel energy sources with renewables. These entail expensive infrastructure reinforcements to support increased peak loads. Energy demand management can help mitigate this anticipated load increase. Capacity-based pricing is a mechanism to incentivise energy demand management by charging for a maximum power draw as opposed to the volume of consumed energy. In this text we use a persona technique to study how user needs drive the typical energy services that compose the aggregate power draw in a family home. We use this to reflect on user feedback (obtained through a demand shifting workshop with 10 participants) to discuss the factors that would allow excessive power demand to be shifted away from peak demand times, thus reducing the maximum draw. Subsequently, the role ...
This report presents the findings of a one-year study that has explored how Bristol Pound (Bristo... more This report presents the findings of a one-year study that has explored how Bristol Pound (Bristol£) has used informal governance as a leadership asset to effect progressive social change at city level. Informal governance is the undocumented interaction that actors often use behind the scenes in pursuit of objectives. Informal working can shape policy-making and city leadership in both positive and negative ways. On the one hand, it can assist in addressing political and policy problems which cannot be solved by traditional government institutions, leading to more effective, inclusive and innovative decision-making. On the other, it can weaken transparency, accountability and legitimacy by undermining traditional (more formal) administrative structures.
For small and medium-sized organisations and initiatives that respond to climate change with soci... more For small and medium-sized organisations and initiatives that respond to climate change with socially oriented business models, formal government policies and laws do not necessarily provide the most effective support for their way of working. ‘Green’ social enterprises often develop bottom-up perspectives that do not fit well with the frameworks of existing regulation, or the expectations of existing professional advice and support.
This article argues that developments relating to the legal form of social enterprises connect cl... more This article argues that developments relating to the legal form of social enterprises connect climate change policy and social policy in creative ways. We explore how legal form can foster practices of eco-sociality that reconfigure the relationship between profit and social goals within an enterprise. The article mounts a case for the importance of legal form from three angles. First, it locates the salience of legal form in the context of broader political currents, particularly the 'new politics of climate change'. Secondly, we bring a consideration of legal form to the exploration of social enterprise, making explicit some key assumptions underlying the borderline between 'social' and 'economic'. Thirdly, we reconnect the seemingly technical concerns of legal form with broader issues of space, place, and identity. Our argument for the importance of a diversity of legal forms as a social policy issue connected to issues of sustainability draws on comparative empirical fieldwork conducted in the UK and Australia.
The effects of the urban environment upon health and wellbeing are profound and are likely to cha... more The effects of the urban environment upon health and wellbeing are profound and are likely to change in the face of future environmental challenges such as climate change…… Using current knowledge, the adverse health effects of an urban environment can be offset by forethought in planning, to take account of the interactions of environmental and lifestyle factors that can influence health (p53)
This guide is aimed at all built environment educators, showing what the key issues are in terms ... more This guide is aimed at all built environment educators, showing what the key issues are in terms of improving health understanding in the built environment professions. It will explain the relevance, show how the built environment impacts on health and its implications for education and provide examples of good practice in teaching. By making these connections, graduates should be emerging into the workplace with a good understanding of the health impacts of their professional work and be equipped with techniques and examples to help ...
PROJECT: Journal of the Department of Planning and Architecture, 2012
The WHO Collaborating Centre is a founder member of HAVEN, a European consortium of universities ... more The WHO Collaborating Centre is a founder member of HAVEN, a European consortium of universities and healthy cities set up to provide academic support to the European Healthy City Network (EHCN). In order to identify which 'healthy city'goals and activities have the most potential for support and collaboration, a survey was carried out across the whole network of 84 cities. It asked who their key partners were and what sort of knowledge and academic input they needed to enable them to best achieve the aims of the WHO Healthy ...
Rapid, unplanned, unsustainable patterns of urban development and continuing urbanisation of the ... more Rapid, unplanned, unsustainable patterns of urban development and continuing urbanisation of the population have always made cities in the developing nations focal points for many emerging environmental and health hazards (WHO, 2002a). The public heath issues of waste disposal, provision of safe water and sanitation and injury prevention are familiar issues at the interface between urban inequalities, environment and health.
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