Dr Karen Parkhill
Research Summary
I am a human geographer and use qualitative methods to examine risk perception and how the public socially construct and engage with environmental and technocratic risks. Such risks include: energy technologies such as civil nuclear power, renewables or coal with carbon capture and storage; climate change; geoengineering. I am also interested in how the public engages with/resists notions of low carbon lifestyles and low carbon transitions, including examining how they themselves consume/perceive energy. The interaction of place, space and context underpins and flows throughout all of these interests. In addition, I am dedicated to the continued development of innovative qualitative research methods (e.g. episodic narrative interviews and photo elicitation), mixed method and interdisciplinary research.
Teaching Summary
I have done some ad hoc lecturing and seminar facilitation across a variety of undergraduate/postgraduate courses within the School of City and Regional Planning and School of Social Sciences.
Selected Publications (2008 onwards)
Butler, C., Parkhill, K. A. and Pidgeon, N., in press, "From the material to the imagined: Public engagement with low carbon technologies in a nuclear community", in P. Devine-Wright (ed.) Public Engagement with Low Carbon Energy Technologies, Earthscan: London
Parkhill, K. A., Henwood, K. L., Pidgeon, N. F., Simmons, P. and Venables, D., 2010, “From the familiar to the extraordinary: the ebbs and flows of local residents' perceptions of risk when living with nuclear power in the UK”, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 39-58.
Henwood, K.L., Pidgeon, N.F., Parkhill, K. and Simmons, P., 2010, "Researching risk: narrative, biography, subjectivity", Forum: Qualitative Social Research, Vol. 11, No. 1.
Venables, D., Pidgeon, N., Simmons, P., Henwood, K. and Parkhill, K., 2009, "Living with nuclear power: A Q-method study of local community perceptions", Risk Analysis, Vol. 29, No. 8, pp. 1089-1104.
Pidgeon, N. F., Henwood, K. L., Parkhill, K. A., Venables, D. and Simmons, P., 2008, “Living with nuclear power in Britain: A mixed methods study”, Cardiff University (available from www.understanding-risk.org or www.kent.ac.uk/scarr)
Henwood, K. L., Parkhill, K. A. And Pidgeon, N. F., 2008, “Science, technology and risk perception: From gender differences to the effects made by gender”, Equal Opportunities International, Vol. 27 No. 8, pp. 662-676.