Dr Catherine Cherry is an environmental social scientist with an interdisciplinary background that cuts across social and environmental science disciplines. Her research has two core strands: 1) public participation and visioning for a low-carbon future, and 2) climate/net-zero discourses (in policy and media) and how they interact with public perceptions. Methodologically, she is a qualitative researcher, using participatory, anticipatory and place-based methods to engage publics with these issues and their implications for everyday life. She has a strong focus on policy impact and the main motivation for her work is to give diverse publics a greater voice in climate policy-making at both a national and local level.
She is currently a Co-Investigator at the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations, (CAST) which aims to explore how people can live differently and better, whilst still achieving radical emissions reductions. She has responsibility for delivering two within CAST’s Visioning theme: Project 1.1 ‘Public engagement for ‘desirable’ and ‘feasible’ visions of change’ and Project 1.5 ‘Media representation of climate change and transformative action’. As a Co-I on the Citizens’ Assemblies on Climate Change project, she was also an official researcher at the Climate Assembly UK. Prior to this, her research has explored public understandings and imaginaries surrounding a range of climate and energy related topics, including: the circular economy, the sharing economy, local decentralised energy systems, and low-carbon housing.
For more information, including Catherine’s research outputs, view her Cardiff University profile.