Dr Kevin Burchell
Kevin joined Policy Studies Institute in 2014. He is an interpretive social scientist, with a focus on producing research that is of value across academic, policy and practitioner domains. His research interests are in: public engagement and public dialogue, community and participatory action research, domestic energy, climate adaptation and resilience, smart meters, behaviour and practice, domestic energy and knowledge, and critical social marketing.
Kevin is Deputy Research Director in the Faculty of Architecture and Built Environment, with particular responsibility for REF2021. Previously, he was a Senior Research Fellow at Kingston University, a Research Fellow at LSE, and he has a PhD from LSE.
Qualifications
- 1999-2005 PhD, Department of Geography and Environment, LSE.
- 1997-1998 MSc Human Geography Research (Distinction), as above.
- 1994-1997 BSc Geography (First class), as above
Contact details
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Projects
- Evaluation of the Heat Networks Investment Project (BEIS, 2017-2021)
- Factors Affecting Public Engagement by Researchers (2015, Wellcome Trust)
- URBAN HEAT: community-led resilience to urban heatwaves (2015-2016, lead researcher, Joseph Rowntree Foundation)
- Recommendations for the British Gas Smart Energy Report (2014, British Gas, senior researcher)
- Smart Communities (2011-2014, co-investigator, ESRC) A novel demand-side community energy project.
- Evaluation of DECC’s Low Carbon Community Challenge (2010-2011, DECC/GfK NOP, academic advisor)
- CHARM (2009-2010, senior researcher, EPSRC) A sustainable behaviour project.
- The roles of social science in public dialogue on science and technology (2008, lead researcher, HEIF)
- Scientists on public engagement (ScoPE) (2006-2009, co-applicant, Wellcome Trust) A sociological study of scientists’ responses to the public engagement agenda.
Policy/practice reports
- Urban Heat: developing the role of community groups in local climate resilience, February 2017
- Working together to save energy? Report of the Smart Communities project, 2014
- The CHARM social norms approach. CHARM research summary, 6. Behaviour and Practice Research Group, February 2013
- ScoPE – Scientists on public engagement: from communication to deliberation?, project report, BIOS, September 2009
- The roles of social science in public dialogue on science and technology: report of a one-day stakeholder workshop, July 2008, BIOS
Papers
- Burchell, K., Sheppard, C. and Chambers, J. (2017) A ‘work in progress’?: UK researchers and participation in public engagement, Research for All, 1(1): 198-224.
- Burchell, K., Rettie, R. and Roberts, T. (2016) Time for change? The hard work of energy demand reduction, paper prepared for DEMAND Centre Conference, Lancaster, 13-15 April 2016
- Burchell, K., Rettie, R. and Roberts, T (2016) Householder engagement with energy consumption feedback: the role of community action and communications. Energy Policy, 88:78–186
- Burchell, K., Fagan-Watson, B. (2015) What does community resilience look like in practice? How institutions see the role of communities in responding to heatwaves in the UK, paper presented at ‘Architecture and Resilience on a Human Scale’ conference, University of Sheffield
- Burchell, K., Rettie, R. and Roberts, T (2015) What is energy know-how and how can it be shared and acquired by householders?, ECEEE Summer Study Proceedings 2015, 1979-1990
- Burchell, K., Rettie, R., Roberts, TC (2014) Community, the very idea!: perspectives of participants in a demand-side community energy project, People, Place and Policy, 19 December 2014
- Rettie, R., Burchell, K. and Barnham, C. (2014), Social normalisation: Using marketing to make green normal. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 13 (1), 9–17. doi: 10.1002/cb.1439
- Harries, T., Rettie, R., Studley, M., Burchell, K., Chambers, S. (2013) Is social norms marketing effective?: A case study in domestic electricity consumption, European Journal of Marketing, 47(9), 1458 - 1475
- Burchell, K., Rettie, R. and Patel, K. (2013), Marketing social norms: Social marketing and the ‘social norm approach’. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 12 (1), 1–9. doi: 10.1002/cb.1395
- Ruth Rettie, Kevin Burchell, Debra Riley (2012) Normalising green behaviours: A new approach to sustainability marketing, Journal of Marketing Management, 28 (3-4)
- Burchell, K. (2009). A helping hand or a servant discipline? - Interpreting non-academic perspectives on the roles of social science in participatory policy-making. Science, Technology & Innovation Studies, 5(1), 49 - 61.
- Burchell, K. (2007) Empiricist selves and contingent ‘others’: the performative function of the discourse of scientists working in conditions of controversy, Public Understanding of Science, 16(2), 145-162
- Burchell, K. (2007) Boundary work, associative argumentation and switching in the advocacy of agricultural biotechnology, Science as Culture, 16(1), 49-70
Blogs for PSI
- Smart Energy GB and DECC: the two policy worlds of domestic energy demand reduction policy, 6 April 2016
- New paper: smart meters, community action and communications, 4 November 2015
- Responding to heatwaves in the UK: can communities help vulnerable people?, 11 September 2015
- Recent adventures with DECC and ECC, 9 September 2015
- A social science of the Nexus?, 18 February 2015
- Smart Communities: working together to save energy?, 18 June 2014
