Paper short abstract:

In this presentation, I will discuss an extreme case of energy poverty that challenge the north/south global divide in the study of energy poverty and its various definitions. I will further make the link between energy poverty, health and community resilience.

Paper long abstract:

Energy poverty has been recognized as a global social and public health challenge. Availability of and accessibility to energy infrastructure is a core element of community resilience—a concept that characterizes a community's ability to promote health and well-being, and to cope with and recover from adversity. We conducted a quantitative survey in order to explore the interplay between these two experiences among residents of two types of Bedouin communities in Southern Israel: townships and informal settlements, which differ in their accessibility to energy infrastructure. We report a significant negative association between experiences of energy insecurity and perceived community resilience, especially with regard to trust in leadership and emergency preparedness. This indicates that energy insecurity is not only a personal or a household burden, but rather an issue that has broader communal and social aspects (and consequences) -one that should be tackled at the local and municipal levels. Our study deepens the current understanding of the processes and factors that may promote or impede community resilience and health in the global North by establishing a clear link between place-related physical and perceptual resources. The unique case-study presets the notion of "extreme energy poverty", which we use to describe situations in which households have no reliable access to grid-based electricity despite the availability of a modern grid in situ or in proximity.