Energy Resilience: Exploring the Cultures, Politics and Practices of Energy Access in Amazonia

This project seeks to forge an approach to ‘energy resilience’ in off-grid locations through interdisciplinary qualitative and quantitative research working directly with people in Amazon forest communities. The research team brings together knowledge from anthropology, engineering, sociology and geography to develop an analytical and practical approach to everyday resilience through the lens of energy access in light of social, political and cultural realities. In Amazonia, one of the most remote areas of the world, many inhabitants are well-adapted to its topographical and environmental challenges, but it is becoming increasingly evident that barriers to energy access have knock-on effects in areas of healthcare, education, democratic participation and equitable access to rights and services. By focusing on the needs, capacities and understandings of communities, this project seeks to empower local people by facilitating greater involvement in development opportunities that recognise the importance of viewing resilience as a way of life.

Principal Investigator: Dr Amy Penfield, University of Bristol