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Accepted Paper:

Resources and skills of the most vulnerable people to tackle fuel poverty in France  
Coralie Robert (Université Paris Nanterre)

Paper short abstract:

Analysis based on the lived experience of fuel poverty allows us to reconsider the phenomenon in relation to the mobilised capacities of the individuals concerned. This study is built upon the elaboration of a detailed typology of resources and skills for coping with fuel poverty.

Paper long abstract:

Fuel poverty is not just a policy category that allows the deployment of energy access policies. Fuel poverty is first and foremost the lived experience of millions of people who are unable to access energy services adequate to their needs. In this context, a lived experiences reading of fuel poverty allows us to go beyond the concepts of fuel poverty in terms of deficiencies by also highlighting the resources and skills available to the most precarious to cope with it. Indeed, several solutions to tackle fuel poverty are deployed in everyday life. A detailed analysis of the resources that can be mobilised allows us to go beyond a reading with the social, economic and material trio. Indeed, more than a dozen areas of resources are identified and make it possible to integrate all the resources of the everyday life: emotional resources, computer or relational skills, technical knowledge, etc.

The aim is to understand the different practices of individuals in dealing with fuel poverty, starting from the discourses and practices of the individuals concerned. Capacities are thus at the heart of the understanding of fuel poverty: energy is not an end in itself, but a necessary support for the mobilisation of capabilities.

A qualitative field survey has been thus conducted in two French cities, Nantes and La Courneuve, between 2015 and 2019. More specifically, the approach chosen consisted of participant observation, interviews and content analysis to support our findings.

Panel P12b
Understanding the lived experiences of energy poverty in the Global North and South
  Session 1 Thursday 7 July, 2022, -