Community engagement and climate change : the value of social networks and community-based organizations

Encouraging individuals to adopt energy efficient and other sustainable ways of living has predominantly focused on trying to change individual behaviour. Yet this approach has faced criticism from those seeking a more meaningful engagement process that communicates a ‘bigger than self’ responsibility to act. This chapter contributes to this discussion by suggesting the use of social networks, and role of community-based organisations within such networks, to encourage individuals to collectively move to low-carbon living. Drawing on the work of one such organisation, Cambridge Carbon Footprint in the UK, it considers more broadly the ability of these ‘trusted messengers’ in improving access to procedural knowledge (that is, instructions on what to do) but also normative and impact knowledge (respectively, an individual’s beliefs about the consequences of their actions, and an understanding of the behaviours of others). Approaching the climate challenge through sustained community engagement, with knowledge, trust and reciprocity developed through community-based organisations, offers the potential bring more people into a constructive process of engagement.