Using the models they used to create their four types of energy literacy, I will create my own titled assistance literacy. I will define it as a household's ability to judge what assistance programs are available to help with differing kinds of energy vulnerabilities and needs. I will use the findings of the survey to make conclusions about assistance literacy, and use their conclusion's suggestions on what should be done to improve it in the future.
Reading this article I thought a lot about the parallels to our own potential findings and how we could discuss them through an energy literacy framework. That said, the survey instrument could be used to make inferences on three of the four literacy typologies discussed in the article: 1) device energy literacy, 2)action energy literacy, 3) financial energy literacy. The authors state, with regards to device energy literacy, that education level wasn't necessarily tied to knowledge of consumption, which is verifiable across our survey sample. There is also room for discussions on household energy literacy, particularly from our survey sample (even interviews if we wish to use) and perhaps make an intervention into the literature on education levels and comparable knowledge of household energy consumption. The article also discusses how the majority of people do not purchase energy-efficient appliances and this could be reflected from both the survey and interviews; we could also comment on the fact that the purchase of energy-efficient appliances is correlated to SES and compare the two respondent samples. Additionally, the article's discussions of financial energy literacy and energy saving behaviors could be discussed alongside some of the survey responses collected. Overall, I found the following quotes particularly relevant to concepts we have come across in our surveying/interviewing:
"Studies have found that people do not currently save energy efficiently in their home, nor do they choose to purchase the most energy-efficient (or cost-effective) (van der Broek 1)."
"people tend to overestimate the energy consumption of devices that are more visible in the household such as lights and entertainment, and underestimate the use of less visible items such as home heating system (van der Broek 2)."
I appreciate how van den Broek takes energy literacy as an object, rather than a mere domain of inquiry. The author uses a literature review to develop a typology of the concept. This a useful starting point, but could use a similar approach that is conducted empirically.
I also think that the concept of energy literacy would benefit by simply finding out what people know about their relationship to energy/energy culture/energy infrastructures, rather than what they know in respect to sustainability in particular. Perhaps the energy ecology concept could be a resource for broadening the concept of energy literacy, while keeping it constrained enough to be useful. For instance, would knowing that nearby fracking sites/natural gas wells are having detrimental impacts on public health count as energy literacy? Or how about knowing that a local neighborhood interprets the plethora of incoming EV charging stations as a form of displacement or of gentrification? I think so.
