Gerald Taylor Aiken
Biographic Data
| ID | 227420 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gerald Taylor Aiken |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gerald Taylor |
| FAMILY NAME | Aiken |
| SIGNATURE | AIKEN G T |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Luxembourg |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0798-495X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 163 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Where next for managed retreat
Managed retreat—the purposive and coordinated movement of people away from climate risks—has risen in importance, discussion and urgency in recent years. As climate threats increase in size and scope, both scholarly and policy responses are likely to take increasing interest in this deeply geographic phenomenon. This is an important juncture to take stock, and reflect on what Geography can offer both academic and policy responses to managed retre…
Watt sense of community? A human geography agenda on energy communities
Energy communities can potentially advance just transitions towards low-carbon systems by devolving energy production and consumption to local scales. During vibrant debates on evolving energy geographies for more than a decade, human geographers have engaged with conceptualization and emergent models of energy communities in generative ways. We argue for a research agenda where these understandings of space, place and scale enhance research on e…
A critical view on the role of scale and instrumental imaginaries within community sustainability transitions research
Research has recently focused on various under‐the‐radar sustainability‐oriented community initiatives to understand and support bottom‐up dynamics of social‐ecological change. While community initiatives vary widely, research on them tends towards an instrumental perspective: a will‐to‐upscale. While exploring possibilities for expanding (some of) the practices and impacts of sustainability‐oriented projects and organizations, we argue for a mor…
Over Researched Places
Difficulties of reaching ‘hard to reach’ groups have resulted in problems of over-research of certain communities and places. Despite the often negative consequences of over-research, the ethical and methodological implications remain under-examined, particularly in the field of migration studies. In this chapter, several ethical issues are addressed regarding the positionality of the researcher within an over-researched place, the Grandhotel Cos…
Vicarious scale and instrumental imaginaries in community sustainable transitions
Community initiatives are often charged with scaling-up: growing, deepening their impacts, and seeding off new projects. The desire to scale-up comes from both within the community initiatives themselves, and is also encouraged by all levels of policy, from local government, to national and international frameworks such as the IPCC. This paper adds to critiques of this agenda, by leaning on human geography writings on scale, and introducing the c…
A Postcolonial Critique of Community Energy
Community renewable energy (CRE) represents a growing empirical and academic turn towards community‐based sustainability and climate change interventions. This paper brings together postcolonial theory and CRE for the first time to outline fundamental tensions in the conceptualisation and application of the idea of community. The understanding of community within the CRE discourse is largely: (1) location‐based; and/or (2) a community of choice t…
Interventions on Democratizing Infrastructure
Transformative mindfulness
This article emerges from the simple observation that community-based social and environmental activists often engage with practices of mindfulness, either personally or collectively. It draws on two case studies, a UK-based Transition initiative and a community of social entrepreneurs in Germany. On the surface, social and environmental activists, committed to change in the 'real world', outward facing and public, jar with practices of 'mindfuln…
Community renewable energy
What can energy research bring to social science? Reflections on 5 years of Energy Research & Social Science and beyond
Community as tool for low carbon transitions
This paper introduces the Heideggerian terms Zuhanden and Vorhanden to studies of community low carbon transitions. It sets apart Zuhandenheit community as involvement: the doing, enacting and belonging aspects of community movements and activism. Vorhandenheit community contrastingly is observed: community as an object at arm's length, to be studied, tasked or used. The article builds on authors, particularly Malpas, who have utilised these conc…
Putting community to use in environmental policy making
Community is frequently called upon in policy to meet environmental challenges. It is increasingly recognised that the success of these environmental interventions relies on community awareness and action. But what this emphasis on community does, and what the impacts are, are often neglected, or left uncritiqued. To explore this issue, we surveyed literature from the UK across four distinct environmental domains-energy, urban greenspace, water, …
One-way street? Spatiality of communities in low carbon transitions in Scotland
Researching climate change and community in neoliberal contexts
In a 2011 contribution to this journal, Walker examined the ways that community is routinely employed in carbon governance, suggesting the need for more critical approaches. Here, we characterize an emerging, critical approach to researching climate change and community in neoliberal contexts, focusing attention principally on the global north, where this body of research has emerged. This work recognizes communities as sites of contestation, dif…
Permaculture and the social design of nature
Permaculture-based social movements proliferate as a response to environmental challenges, a way to pursue the 'good life', and a vision of a more harmonious way to be in and belong to the world. Ecovillages, bioregionalisation, and the Transition (Town) movement all apply permaculture principles in designing social systems. Core to permaculture is designing based on, and in harmony with, patterns identified in nature. Yet, as is often highlighte…
The politics of community
This article excavates the role, function and practices of community within Transition, a grassroots environmentalist movement. It does so to pursue a quest for understanding if, how, and in what ways, community-based environmental movements are 'political'. When community-based low carbon initiatives are discussed academically, they can be critiqued; this critique is in turn often based on the perception that the crucial community aspect tends t…
Prosaic state governance of community low carbon transitions
Geography – History and Concepts
Community Transitions to Low Carbon Futures in the Transition Towns Network (TTN)
This paper examines the use of 'community' rhetoric in the Transition Town Network (TTN). This is seen in both its external and internal context. Externally, TTN has emerged against the backdrop of an increasing use of 'community' rhetoric in environmental governance, for example, in renewable energy projects. Internally, the use of 'community' language and 'community' ways of operating are crucial for understanding this movement, in how it sees …
Community renewable energy
Researching climate change and community in neoliberal contexts
In a 2011 contribution to this journal, Walker examined the ways that community is routinely employed in carbon governance, suggesting the need for more critical approaches. Here, we characterize an emerging, critical approach to researching climate change and community in neoliberal contexts, focusing attention principally on the global north, where this body of research has emerged. This work recognizes communities as sites of contestation, dif…
Prosaic state governance of community low carbon transitions
What can energy research bring to social science? Reflections on 5 years of Energy Research & Social Science and beyond
The politics of community
This article excavates the role, function and practices of community within Transition, a grassroots environmentalist movement. It does so to pursue a quest for understanding if, how, and in what ways, community-based environmental movements are 'political'. When community-based low carbon initiatives are discussed academically, they can be critiqued; this critique is in turn often based on the perception that the crucial community aspect tends t…
Transformative mindfulness
This article emerges from the simple observation that community-based social and environmental activists often engage with practices of mindfulness, either personally or collectively. It draws on two case studies, a UK-based Transition initiative and a community of social entrepreneurs in Germany. On the surface, social and environmental activists, committed to change in the 'real world', outward facing and public, jar with practices of 'mindfuln…
Community as tool for low carbon transitions
This paper introduces the Heideggerian terms Zuhanden and Vorhanden to studies of community low carbon transitions. It sets apart Zuhandenheit community as involvement: the doing, enacting and belonging aspects of community movements and activism. Vorhandenheit community contrastingly is observed: community as an object at arm's length, to be studied, tasked or used. The article builds on authors, particularly Malpas, who have utilised these conc…
A Postcolonial Critique of Community Energy
Community renewable energy (CRE) represents a growing empirical and academic turn towards community‐based sustainability and climate change interventions. This paper brings together postcolonial theory and CRE for the first time to outline fundamental tensions in the conceptualisation and application of the idea of community. The understanding of community within the CRE discourse is largely: (1) location‐based; and/or (2) a community of choice t…
Community Transitions to Low Carbon Futures in the Transition Towns Network (TTN)
This paper examines the use of 'community' rhetoric in the Transition Town Network (TTN). This is seen in both its external and internal context. Externally, TTN has emerged against the backdrop of an increasing use of 'community' rhetoric in environmental governance, for example, in renewable energy projects. Internally, the use of 'community' language and 'community' ways of operating are crucial for understanding this movement, in how it sees …
Vicarious scale and instrumental imaginaries in community sustainable transitions
Community initiatives are often charged with scaling-up: growing, deepening their impacts, and seeding off new projects. The desire to scale-up comes from both within the community initiatives themselves, and is also encouraged by all levels of policy, from local government, to national and international frameworks such as the IPCC. This paper adds to critiques of this agenda, by leaning on human geography writings on scale, and introducing the c…
Permaculture and the social design of nature
Permaculture-based social movements proliferate as a response to environmental challenges, a way to pursue the 'good life', and a vision of a more harmonious way to be in and belong to the world. Ecovillages, bioregionalisation, and the Transition (Town) movement all apply permaculture principles in designing social systems. Core to permaculture is designing based on, and in harmony with, patterns identified in nature. Yet, as is often highlighte…
Interventions on Democratizing Infrastructure
Watt sense of community? A human geography agenda on energy communities
Energy communities can potentially advance just transitions towards low-carbon systems by devolving energy production and consumption to local scales. During vibrant debates on evolving energy geographies for more than a decade, human geographers have engaged with conceptualization and emergent models of energy communities in generative ways. We argue for a research agenda where these understandings of space, place and scale enhance research on e…
A critical view on the role of scale and instrumental imaginaries within community sustainability transitions research
Research has recently focused on various under‐the‐radar sustainability‐oriented community initiatives to understand and support bottom‐up dynamics of social‐ecological change. While community initiatives vary widely, research on them tends towards an instrumental perspective: a will‐to‐upscale. While exploring possibilities for expanding (some of) the practices and impacts of sustainability‐oriented projects and organizations, we argue for a mor…
Putting community to use in environmental policy making
Community is frequently called upon in policy to meet environmental challenges. It is increasingly recognised that the success of these environmental interventions relies on community awareness and action. But what this emphasis on community does, and what the impacts are, are often neglected, or left uncritiqued. To explore this issue, we surveyed literature from the UK across four distinct environmental domains-energy, urban greenspace, water, …
One-way street? Spatiality of communities in low carbon transitions in Scotland
Where next for managed retreat
Managed retreat—the purposive and coordinated movement of people away from climate risks—has risen in importance, discussion and urgency in recent years. As climate threats increase in size and scope, both scholarly and policy responses are likely to take increasing interest in this deeply geographic phenomenon. This is an important juncture to take stock, and reflect on what Geography can offer both academic and policy responses to managed retre…
Geography – History and Concepts
Community Transitions to Low Carbon Futures in the Transition Towns Network (TTN)
This paper examines the use of 'community' rhetoric in the Transition Town Network (TTN). This is seen in both its external and internal context. Externally, TTN has emerged against the backdrop of an increasing use of 'community' rhetoric in environmental governance, for example, in renewable energy projects. Internally, the use of 'community' language and 'community' ways of operating are crucial for understanding this movement, in how it sees …
Prosaic state governance of community low carbon transitions
One-way street? Spatiality of communities in low carbon transitions in Scotland
Researching climate change and community in neoliberal contexts
In a 2011 contribution to this journal, Walker examined the ways that community is routinely employed in carbon governance, suggesting the need for more critical approaches. Here, we characterize an emerging, critical approach to researching climate change and community in neoliberal contexts, focusing attention principally on the global north, where this body of research has emerged. This work recognizes communities as sites of contestation, dif…
Permaculture and the social design of nature
Permaculture-based social movements proliferate as a response to environmental challenges, a way to pursue the 'good life', and a vision of a more harmonious way to be in and belong to the world. Ecovillages, bioregionalisation, and the Transition (Town) movement all apply permaculture principles in designing social systems. Core to permaculture is designing based on, and in harmony with, patterns identified in nature. Yet, as is often highlighte…
The politics of community
This article excavates the role, function and practices of community within Transition, a grassroots environmentalist movement. It does so to pursue a quest for understanding if, how, and in what ways, community-based environmental movements are 'political'. When community-based low carbon initiatives are discussed academically, they can be critiqued; this critique is in turn often based on the perception that the crucial community aspect tends t…
Community as tool for low carbon transitions
This paper introduces the Heideggerian terms Zuhanden and Vorhanden to studies of community low carbon transitions. It sets apart Zuhandenheit community as involvement: the doing, enacting and belonging aspects of community movements and activism. Vorhandenheit community contrastingly is observed: community as an object at arm's length, to be studied, tasked or used. The article builds on authors, particularly Malpas, who have utilised these conc…
Putting community to use in environmental policy making
Community is frequently called upon in policy to meet environmental challenges. It is increasingly recognised that the success of these environmental interventions relies on community awareness and action. But what this emphasis on community does, and what the impacts are, are often neglected, or left uncritiqued. To explore this issue, we surveyed literature from the UK across four distinct environmental domains-energy, urban greenspace, water, …
Community renewable energy
What can energy research bring to social science? Reflections on 5 years of Energy Research & Social Science and beyond
A Postcolonial Critique of Community Energy
Community renewable energy (CRE) represents a growing empirical and academic turn towards community‐based sustainability and climate change interventions. This paper brings together postcolonial theory and CRE for the first time to outline fundamental tensions in the conceptualisation and application of the idea of community. The understanding of community within the CRE discourse is largely: (1) location‐based; and/or (2) a community of choice t…
Interventions on Democratizing Infrastructure
Transformative mindfulness
This article emerges from the simple observation that community-based social and environmental activists often engage with practices of mindfulness, either personally or collectively. It draws on two case studies, a UK-based Transition initiative and a community of social entrepreneurs in Germany. On the surface, social and environmental activists, committed to change in the 'real world', outward facing and public, jar with practices of 'mindfuln…
Over Researched Places
Difficulties of reaching ‘hard to reach’ groups have resulted in problems of over-research of certain communities and places. Despite the often negative consequences of over-research, the ethical and methodological implications remain under-examined, particularly in the field of migration studies. In this chapter, several ethical issues are addressed regarding the positionality of the researcher within an over-researched place, the Grandhotel Cos…
Vicarious scale and instrumental imaginaries in community sustainable transitions
Community initiatives are often charged with scaling-up: growing, deepening their impacts, and seeding off new projects. The desire to scale-up comes from both within the community initiatives themselves, and is also encouraged by all levels of policy, from local government, to national and international frameworks such as the IPCC. This paper adds to critiques of this agenda, by leaning on human geography writings on scale, and introducing the c…
A critical view on the role of scale and instrumental imaginaries within community sustainability transitions research
Research has recently focused on various under‐the‐radar sustainability‐oriented community initiatives to understand and support bottom‐up dynamics of social‐ecological change. While community initiatives vary widely, research on them tends towards an instrumental perspective: a will‐to‐upscale. While exploring possibilities for expanding (some of) the practices and impacts of sustainability‐oriented projects and organizations, we argue for a mor…
Where next for managed retreat
Managed retreat—the purposive and coordinated movement of people away from climate risks—has risen in importance, discussion and urgency in recent years. As climate threats increase in size and scope, both scholarly and policy responses are likely to take increasing interest in this deeply geographic phenomenon. This is an important juncture to take stock, and reflect on what Geography can offer both academic and policy responses to managed retre…
Watt sense of community? A human geography agenda on energy communities
Energy communities can potentially advance just transitions towards low-carbon systems by devolving energy production and consumption to local scales. During vibrant debates on evolving energy geographies for more than a decade, human geographers have engaged with conceptualization and emergent models of energy communities in generative ways. We argue for a research agenda where these understandings of space, place and scale enhance research on e…
Sociology (16 works) · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance (13 works) · Political science (12 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Environmental ethics (8 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Geography (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy (6 works) · Economics (5 works)