Carolyn is a Professor of Social Policy in the School for Business and Society at the University of York. She comes from a multidisciplinary background with a degree in Politics and English Literature, a Master’s degree in Social Policy, and a PhD co-supervised across the social and natural sciences, funded by the ESRC/NERC.
She has a long-standing interest in climate and energy justice. Over the course of her academic career, she has become a specialist in the social inclusion dimensions of energy policy, with a particular interest in how policy decisions impact some of the most vulnerable households, including those on low incomes, those on the brink of homelessness, and disabled people.
As the transition to Net Zero has become more prominent in both policy and politics, she became increasingly concerned about the risk of people being ‘left behind’ by current policy decisions. Her most recent research has considered how the Net Zero transition is likely to ‘land’ in particular homes and communities, outlining the risks it may pose to some households and, importantly, how these risks might be managed by policymakers. A full account of this is available in Just Climate Futures: Integrating Social Inclusion into the Net Zero Transition.
A full publication list is available here.