Prof. David Uzzell

Research

David Uzzell is Professor of Environmental Psychology at the University of Surrey where he leads the Environmental Psychology Research Group. He is one of the co-investigators on a five-year ESRC interdisciplinary research programme examining the links between lifestyle, societal values and energy consumption (RESOLVE). He is also undertaking research funded by the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research on ‘Trade Unions facing the dual challenge of globalising work division and globalising environmental degradation’. His research has been funded by the EU, national and local government, international agencies, the UK and Swedish research councils and industry. He is Past President of the International Association of People-Environment Studies (IAPS), the British Psychological Society’s representative on the European Federation of Psychologists’ Association Task Force on Environmental Psychology, and Visiting Professor at the University of Umeå. He is currently a member of the Behavioural Research Network, Department for Communities and Local Government.

He was recently invited to give the British Academy/British Psychological Society Annual Lecture on ‘Psychology and Climate Change: Collective Solutions to a Global Problem’ at the Royal Society (September 2010). In 2009, he chaired the BPS Working Party which organised a one day conference for policymakers on Psychology & Climate Change Policy(October 2009; London).

His research interests focus on public understandings of climate change, social and critical psychological approaches to changing consumption and production practices, and attitude and behaviour change in respect of energy, waste and transport. Other research areas in which he has published extensively include urban and neighbourhood planning, environmental risk and safety, heritage interpretation, architecture and office design.

Selected Recent Current Grants (Principal or Co-Investigator)

1. Vetenskaprådet (The Swedish Research Council) 2011 – 2016 Moments of danger, moments of opportunity: the role of individuals as change agents in organisations. A qualitative and quantitative study of union officials in national and international unions (CI)

2. EU, 2011 -2014 Low Carbon at Work: Modelling agents and organisations to achieve transition to a low carbon Europe (LOCAW) (CI)

3. EPSRC, 2010 – 2013: Reshaping Energy Demand of Users by information and Communication Technology and Economic Incentives (REDUCE) - (CI)

4. Forskningsrådet för Arbetsliv och Socialvetenskap (FAS: Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research), 2008 - 2011, Trade Unions facing the dual challenge of globalising work division and globalising environmental degradation, (CI) (with N. Räthzel)

5. ESRC, 2007 -2010, Assessing the potential risk of, and possible responses to, zoonotic diseases on the development of recreational use of British forests and wild-lands, (CI)

6. ESRC, 2006 - 2011, Research on Lifestyle, Values and Energy Consumption (RESOLVE) (CI)

7. European Union, 2008 - 2011, Identity and Conflict. Cultural Heritage and the Reconstruction of Identities after Conflict, (International Advisor)

8. EU/Surrey County Council, 2005 - 2007, ChangeLab: sustainability attitude and behaviour change