Gerald Aiken

Previously I have worked on: The role that community plays in the governance of sustainability transformations as my research field. I, with peers, have  done more theoretical development here perhaps. This field gathers analyses of the ways in which community responds to low carbon challenges. This can be so-called 'bottom-up', grassroots activists coming together to do something about environmental challenges (for example the Transition Town movement), or ́top-down ́(neighbourhood-based schemes of carbon footprint reduction), or less obviously scalar: co-housing schemes, car sharing, community-owned energy. The community implied varies widely. Consider the various ways in which a perceived idea of togetherness is used when environmental action is encouraged: for example the commonly heard sentences 'the scientific community needs to communicate the science better', or 'we need to act on environmental issues ́. Varying kinds of ideas of collectivity and togetherness are involved whenever community and environment are co-implicated.