Professor Patrick Devine-Wright

Patrick Devine-Wright has been ranked in the world's top 1% of social science scholars in 2019, 2020, and 2021 (Web of Science). With expertise spanning Human Geography and Environmental Psychology, he conducts theoretically-driven yet relevant research, often in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary settings. Across local, national and international contexts, he is engaged in efforts to ensure social science insights inform decisions on a range of environmental challenges, notably climate change.

Broad research specialisms:

• investigating social and psychological aspects of energy transitions, notably siting controversies, 'NIMBYism’, public participation and community engagement.
• understanding people's relationships with places and landscapes, particularly concepts of place attachment and place identity.
• understanding how the public are imagined by policy makers and industry in relation to energy and environmental problems - for example as users, consumer and citizens.

He is a Lead Author for the IPCC Working Group III in the 6th Asessment Round contributing to a chapter on 'Demand, Services and Social Aspects of Mitigation'. He is Chair of the Devon Net Zero Climate Emergency Task Force and a non-executive Director of Exeter Community Energy. He contributes to the International Energy Agency's Task 28 on Social Acceptance of Wind Energy and has been a member of the National Advisory Group for EirGrid (the Irish electricity grid operator) since 2013.

He is a member of the Peer Review Group for the Department for Business, Enterprise and Industrial Strategy; and was formerly a member of the Social Science Expert Panel advising Defra and DECC. He was an invited member of the National Advisory Group steering the UK Community Renewables Initiatives between 2001 and 2006; and acted as Lead Expert to the Office of Science and Technology’s Foresight Project on Sustainable Energy and the Built Environment (2008).

He sits on the board of several academic journals including Global Environmental Change, Energy Research and Social Science, Journal of Environmental Psychology and Environment and Behavior. He edited a book on ‘Public Engagement with Renewable Energy: From NIMBY to Participation' published by Earthscan in 2011. A book on 'Place Attachment', co-edited with Dr. Lynne Manzo (University of Washington), was published by Routledge in 2013, for which we received the annual 2014 Achievement Award from the US Environmental Design Research Association. 

Last modified: Mon, 16 May 2022 16:09:09 BST