Overview
My PhD at Exeter follows from a 25-year career in environment and sustainability during which I have worked in research, policy and project roles for the University of the West of England, the Environment Agency, the National Trust and Cornwall Council. My experience in practice has led to a lasting interest in the ways that renewable energy affects rural places and the responses it provokes.
Community-owned renewable energy challenges the incumbent model of centralised fossil fuel both through decentralising infrastructure and through alternative modes of governance and ownership. Studies of community energy have tended to focus on its social, governance and participation dimensions, with few examining its impact on people-place relations. My PhD will contribute to the understanding of how community energy interacts with the symbolic and affective dimensions of place. I will do this by looking at how place values are expressed through community wind energy proposals as they are negotiated through the planning process. I have a particular interest in the ways that landscape is perceived to be affected by wind energy and how this is interpreted by those involved in or affected by community energy projects. My project is supervised by Professor Patrick Devine-Wright and Dr Catherine Butler at Exeter and Professor Katie Williams at UWE. I am funded by the ESRC South West Doctoral Training Partnership.
Before starting my PhD I completed an MSc in Science Communication at Imperial College. Alongside my studies at Exeter I am developing my interest in engaging the wider public with social science research, in particular through the medium of sound.
Soundcloud - personal page: https://soundcloud.com/celia-robbins
Soundcloud – podcast produced for the Climate Stories project: https://soundcloud.com/user-169859995/three-days-of-creating-climate-stories-from-dartington-may-2018
South West Doctoral Training Partnership: https://www.swdtp.ac.uk/our-students/sustainable-futures/
Broad research specialisms:
- The relationship between people and places
- Understanding local responses to wind turbine siting
- Renewable energy and landscape
- Energy policy and community energy
Qualifications
MSc Science Communication 2017 (distinction), Imperial College London
MA Environmental Planning 1996, University of Nottingham
Publications
Key publications | Publications by category | Publications by year
Publications by category
Journal articles
Berglund O, Britton J, Hatzisavvidou S, Robbins C, Shackleton D (2023). Just transition in the post-pandemic city. Local Environment, 28(6), 753-767.
Woodley E, Barr S, Stott P, Thomet P, Flint S, Lovell F, O'Malley E, Plews D, Rapley C, Robbins C, et al (2022). Climate Stories: enabling and sustaining arts interventions in climate science communication.
Geoscience Communication,
5(4), 339-354.
Abstract:
Climate Stories: enabling and sustaining arts interventions in climate science communication
Abstract. The climate science community faces a major challenge with respect to communicating the
risks associated with climate change within a heavily politicised landscape that is
characterised by varying degrees of denial, scepticism, distrust in
scientific enterprise, and an increased prevalence of misinformation (“fake
news”). This issue is particularly significant given the reliance on
conventional “deficit” communication approaches, which are based on the
assumption that scientific information provision will necessarily lead to
desired behavioural changes. Indeed, the constrained orthodoxy of scientific practices in seeking to maintain strict objectivity and political separation imposes very tangible limits on the potential effectiveness of climate
scientists for communicating risk in many contemporary settings. To address
these challenges, this paper uses insights from a collaboration between UK
climate scientists and artist researchers to argue for a more creative and
emotionally attentive approach to climate science engagement and advocacy.
In so doing, the paper highlights innovative ways in which climate change
communication can be reimagined through different art forms to enable
complex concepts to become knowable. We suggest that in learning to express
their work through forms of art, including print-making, theatre and
performance, song-writing, and creative writing, researchers experienced not
only a sense of liberation from the rigid communicative framework operating
in their familiar scientific environment but also a growing self-confidence in their ability and willingness to engage in new ways of expressing their work. As such, we argue that scientific institutions and funding bodies should recognise the potential value of climate scientists engaging in advocacy through art–science collaborations and that these personal investments and contributions to science engagement by individuals should be rewarded and valued alongside conventional scientific outputs.
.
Abstract.
Robbins C, Rowe J (2002). Unresolved responsibilities: Exploring local democratisation and sustainable development through a community-based waste reduction initiative.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT STUDIES,
28(1), 37-58.
Author URL.
Publications by year
2023
Berglund O, Britton J, Hatzisavvidou S, Robbins C, Shackleton D (2023). Just transition in the post-pandemic city. Local Environment, 28(6), 753-767.
2022
Woodley E, Barr S, Stott P, Thomet P, Flint S, Lovell F, O'Malley E, Plews D, Rapley C, Robbins C, et al (2022). Climate Stories: enabling and sustaining arts interventions in climate science communication.
Geoscience Communication,
5(4), 339-354.
Abstract:
Climate Stories: enabling and sustaining arts interventions in climate science communication
Abstract. The climate science community faces a major challenge with respect to communicating the
risks associated with climate change within a heavily politicised landscape that is
characterised by varying degrees of denial, scepticism, distrust in
scientific enterprise, and an increased prevalence of misinformation (“fake
news”). This issue is particularly significant given the reliance on
conventional “deficit” communication approaches, which are based on the
assumption that scientific information provision will necessarily lead to
desired behavioural changes. Indeed, the constrained orthodoxy of scientific practices in seeking to maintain strict objectivity and political separation imposes very tangible limits on the potential effectiveness of climate
scientists for communicating risk in many contemporary settings. To address
these challenges, this paper uses insights from a collaboration between UK
climate scientists and artist researchers to argue for a more creative and
emotionally attentive approach to climate science engagement and advocacy.
In so doing, the paper highlights innovative ways in which climate change
communication can be reimagined through different art forms to enable
complex concepts to become knowable. We suggest that in learning to express
their work through forms of art, including print-making, theatre and
performance, song-writing, and creative writing, researchers experienced not
only a sense of liberation from the rigid communicative framework operating
in their familiar scientific environment but also a growing self-confidence in their ability and willingness to engage in new ways of expressing their work. As such, we argue that scientific institutions and funding bodies should recognise the potential value of climate scientists engaging in advocacy through art–science collaborations and that these personal investments and contributions to science engagement by individuals should be rewarded and valued alongside conventional scientific outputs.
.
Abstract.
2002
Robbins C, Rowe J (2002). Unresolved responsibilities: Exploring local democratisation and sustainable development through a community-based waste reduction initiative.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT STUDIES,
28(1), 37-58.
Author URL.
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