Manage your preferences

The Leeds Beckett website is designed to enable you to manage your own privacy preferences. By clicking on 'Cookies' below you can manage what data the site collects about your browsing. This will only maintain if you are on your own device or using a synched version of your chosen browser. If you are using a shared or public machine without synching your browser then there is no need to change the preferences.

Our site is built with accessibility in mind and we seek to adhere to the WACG AA levels of compliance for digital accessibility. To support that we have provided instructions on managing animations below.

Cookies

Necessary Cookies
Necessary cookies enable you to use all the different parts of leedsbeckett.ac.uk. Without them services that you have asked for cannot be provided. Necessary cookies can only be disabled by changing your browser preferences.
Analytical Cookies
Analytical cookies help us understand how people are using our websites, so we can improve them and provide a better user experience. We also sometimes get our approved partner companies to analyse how people are using Leeds Beckett Websites and they may set their own analytical cookies in order to do this.
Marketing Cookies
Marketing cookies allow us to provide you with online adverts that are the most relevant and useful for you.
For more information please view our Privacy Policy

Animations & Interaction

The Leeds Beckett University website occasionally uses animations to page elements and animated gifs to add impact to pages. If you wish to stop them from playing for accessibility purposes or for personal preference then please see the guidance below. Please note that browsers sometimes change how they operate, so please refer to your browser help files to find their latest information.
How do I turn off animations?

Chrome

Chrome users will need to use browser extensions. Animation Policy from Google will help you set your own preferences.

Microsoft Edge

There is currently no way to disable animations within Microsoft Edge. Users of Edge (Chromium) browser can install the Chrome extensions above and use them.

Internet Explorer

To stop animations on a single page you can just press the 'Esc' key. This will stop the animation on that page. If you wish to restart the animations you need to refresh the page. To permanently disable the playing of animated GIF images, open Internet Options > Advanced tab. Under the Multimedia section, uncheck the Play animations in webpage check-box, click Apply and Exit and then restart your computer.

Firefox

Type about:config in Firefox address bar and hit Enter to open Settings. Search for the image.animation_mode flag and change its value from Normal to None. Once you restart Firefox this will disable animations.

Dr Anne Schiffer

Reader

Dr Schiffer explores how human-centred design collaborations can contribute to equitable and just futures in the context of energy, mobility and water scarcity in the Global South. She is the author of Reframing Energy Access: Insights from The Gambia.

The interdisciplinary nature of Dr Schiffer's research brings together participatory design practice, urbanism, feminist development theory and ethnography. She holds a PhD from Queen’s University Belfast that critiques the role of designers in international development. Prior to joining Leeds Beckett University, she led the Scottish part of Community Power, a European funded project that aimed to improve policy and legislation to speed up the development of community-owned renewable energy.

Dr Schiffer has a passion for design thinking as a tool for social change and supporting people who want to turn their ideas into action through human-centred design. She has facilitated design workshops for community groups and decision makers in Ireland, the UK, Sweden and Thailand. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) and a member of the African Studies Association.

Current Teaching

Dr Schiffer supervises a number of PhD students, leads the MA3D Design Exploratory Practice Module and is a year and module leader on the BA Product Design course where she teaches across all levels and leads the following modules:

P6.12 Design for the Real world
P4.4 Design Process
P4.5 Human-centred design research
P4.6 Responsible Design

Research Interests

Dr Schiffer’s research explores how human-centred design processes can create equitable and just futures in the context of energy, mobility and water scarcity in the Global South. She co-leads the new Leeds School of Arts PARTICIPATE research cluster together with Dr Marc Fabri and Dr Mary Ikoniadou.

Recent and ongoing research collaborations include:

Consultancy to coordinate research for Friends of the Earth International Renewables & Land Project with a focus on gender and justice in the Global South (2021-23)
Lead-investigator on ‘Sustainable energy futures? An exploration of household energy and mobility practice in the Leeds Climate Innovation District’ (2023)
Co-investigator on the original Leeds School of Arts ‘Wise Women’ (2022) project which sought to empower academic women to overcome career barriers, as well as the Wise Women 2.0 (2023) follow on project which is focused women’s experiences of operational processes related to key academic progression criteria. Both projects received funding from Research England and the Leeds Beckett Equity and Inclusion Research fund
Innovate UK funded research on water scarcity in the West Bengal region of India that integrates qualitative human-centred and technical insights in order to adapt ‘Monitoring and ANalytics To Improve Service’ (MANTIS) technology into the rural Indian context (2020-21)
Research on ‘gender equity and energy access in the Global South’ (2020-21), funded by an Anglia Ruskin University Global Challenges Research Challenges Fund (GCRF) award. This is international collaboration brought together a range of academic and non-academic partners based in Ghana, Nigeria, India, Pakistan, the Netherlands and the UK to investigates how ‘access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy’ is constructed by professional actors and with what implications for gender equity

0113 81 29156
A.Schiffer@leedsbeckett.ac.uk
Broadcasting Place A, 305, City Campus

Leeds School of Arts

Ask Me About

Community energy
Consumption practices
Design ethnography
Design in international development
Design thinking
Energy access
Energy transitions
Gambia
Gender and energy
Ghana
Global South
Human-centred design
India
Just transitions
Positionality
Reflexivity
Rural
SDG6
SDG7
Urban metabolism
Water access
Community
Design
Energy and sustainability
Gender
Justice
Renewable energy
Sustainability

Selected Outputs

Schiffer A; Clavin A (2020) Urban prototyping with communities.

Schiffer A (2022) Energy, public concern with. In: Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-being Research. New York: Springer,
Greene M; Schiffer A (2021) “Women don’t ride bicycle[s], only men ride bicycles” - Gender and justice in mobility transitions. In: Kumar A; Höffken J; Pols A ed. Dilemmas of Energy Transitions in the Global South Balancing Urgency and Justice. Routledge,

Schiffer A; Greene M (2021) ‘“Women don’t ride bicycle[s], only men ride bicycles”- gender and justice in mobility transitions (Session: Dominated, ignored and belittled? Women’s voices in the energy transition). In: 5th Energy and Society Conference, 10 February 2021 - 12 February 2021, Trento, Italy.
Schiffer A (2019) Energy Communities in Scotland: Support Mechanisms and Ownership Models. In: Community Energy Public Forum, 14 November 2019.
Schiffer A (2019) Using human insight to design energy futures: reflections on working in The Gambia. In: Why The World Needs Anthropologists conference, 26 October 2018 - 27 October 2018, Lisbon, Portugal.
Schiffer A (2019) Co-designing energy futures: a reflection on engaging women and young people in The Gambia (Session: Methods for engaging communities on creating sustainable futures). In: Dr Anne Schiffer, 28 August 2019 - 30 August 2019.
Schiffer A (2019) Design thinking as a tool for participatory action and community development?. In: EUGEO Congress in conjunction with 51st Conference of Irish Geographers, 15 May 2019 - 18 May 2019, Galway, Ireland.
Schiffer A (2019) Integrating energy and water scarcity through human-centred design (Session: Methodological innovations in sustainability research: Tackling complex socio-environmental challenges through geographical research approaches). In: EUGEO Congress in conjunction with 51st Conference of Irish Geographers, 15 May 2019 - 18 May 2019, Galway, Ireland.
Schiffer A; Greene M (2018) Past, Present and Future: Developing a long-term perspective of changing energy cultures in The Gambia. In: 50th Conference of Irish Geographers, 10 May 2018 - 12 May 2018, Maynooth, Ireland.
Schiffer A (2017) The need for people’s participation in renewable energy transitions: learning from the European fight for community ownership. In: RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2017, 29 August 2017 - 1 September 2017, London.
Schiffer A (2017) Solidarity or selfishness? A critique of decentralised ownership in Europe. In: RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2017, 29 August 2017 - 1 September 2017, London.
Schiffer A (2017) Missing out on energy citizenship: pitfalls of delivering first-time access to modern energy services. In: RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2017, 29 August 2017 - 1 September 2017, London.
Schiffer A (2017) Enough Is Enough: energy sufficiency in the context of climate change and global access inequality. In: 2nd International Conference on Energy, Environment and Climate Change (ICEECC 2017), 5 July 2017 - 7 July 2017, Pointe aux Piments, Mauritius.
Schiffer A (2017) Issues of power and positionality in participatory design. In: Small Is Beautiful Festival 2017: Housing Justice - Panel ECOLOGICAL DESIGN : A TRANSFORMATIVE APPROACH TO HOUSING, 8 June 2017 - 10 June 2017, Centre for Alternative Technology, Machynlleth, Wales.
Schiffer A (2015) Community Power: transforming the energy system through community ownership. In: Community Energy And Local Governments: Capacity building on financial models - zooming in on ESCOs, 9 September 2015, London.
Schiffer A (2015) Designing energy futures: a case study from The Gambia. In: International Conference on Changing Cities II: spatial, design, landscape and socio-economic dimensions, 22 June 2015 - 26 June 2015, Porto Heli, Peloponnese, Greece.
Schiffer A (2014) Energy Service Provision: issues of equality and resource dependency. In: RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2014, 26 August 2014 - 29 August 2014, London.
Schiffer A (2014) Visualizing energy economies in rural Gambia. In: RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2014, 26 August 2014 - 29 August 2014, London.
Schiffer A (2013) Making Sense Of Complex And Fluid Positionalities. In: Gaborone International Design Conference: Design Future: Creativity, Innovation and Development, 24 September 2013 - 26 September 2013, Gaberone, Botswana.
Schiffer A (2013) Designing in Rural Gambia: the need for reflexive knowledge in design practice. In: Knowing (by) Designing, 22 May 2013 - 23 May 2013, Brussels.

Schiffer A (2015) I put my money where my mouth is and invested in community energy [Online] Friends of the Earth Scotland.

Available from: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/i-put-my-money-where-mouth-invested-community-energy-anne-schiffer/

Schiffer A (2022) Collective capabilities: overcoming energy scarcity through power sharing. Journal of the British Academy, 9 (S7), pp. 85-101.

https://doi.org/10.5871/jba/009s7.085
Schiffer A; Greene M; Khalid R; Foulds C; Vidal CA; Chatterjee M; Dhar-Bhattacharjee S; Edomah N; Sule O; Palit D (2022) Brokering Gender Empowerment in Energy Access in the Global South. Buildings and Cities, 3 (1), pp. 619-637.

https://doi.org/10.5334/bc.236
Schiffer A (2020) Issues of power and representation : adapting positionality and reflexivity in community-based design. The International Journal of Art & Design Education

https://doi.org/10.1111/jade.12291
Munro P; Schiffer A (2019) Ethnographies of Electricity Scarcity: mobile phone charging spaces and the recrafting of energy poverty in Africa. Energy and Buildings, 188-18 pp. 175-183.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2019.01.038
Schiffer A; Swan AD; Mendes RLR; Vasconcellos Sobrinho M (2019) Looking to peripheral river islands in Brazil to develop an urban island water metabolism perspective. Waterlines, 38 (2),

https://doi.org/10.3362/1756-3488.18-00010
Schiffer A (2016) Empowered, excited, or disenfranchised? Unveiling issues of energy access inequality and resource dependency in The Gambia. Energy Research and Social Science

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2016.04.011

Schiffer A (2021) An Introduction to Sustainable Design: A Human-centred Perspective.

Schiffer A (2020) Reframing Energy Access: Insights from the Gambia. Routledge.

Schiffer A; Shaw S; Al Butmeh A; Rabi A; Snunu A; Wafi A; Salvatico N; Gould MM; Alderete G; Damle H (2023) Renewable energy & land use barriers to just transition in the Global South [Online]. Amsterdam: Friends of the Earth International.

Available from: file:///Users/schiff01/OneDrive%20-%20Leeds%20Beckett%20University/BA%20Product%20Design/2022-23/Briefs/Renewable-energy-and-land-use_just-transition_FOEI-report.pdf
Leah J; Coombes L; Schiffer A; Dyson G (2023) Wise Women Manifesto [Online]. Leeds: Leeds School of Arts.
Greene M; Schiffer A (2018) Learning from past and current energy transitions to build sustainable and resilient energy futures: Lessons from Ireland and The Gambia [Online]. Shape Energy.

Available from: https://shapeenergy.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SHAPE-ENERGY_D3.5_Research-design-challenge-collection.pdf
Schiffer A (2017) Shared Ownership in Scotland: opening up citizen participation in renewable energy [Online]. Edinburgh: Friends of the Earth Scotland.

Available from: http://www.communitypower.scot/news/shared-ownership-report/
Wu B; Schiffer A; Burns B (2016) Power for the People: delivering decentralized, community-controlled renewable energy access [Online]. ActionAid USA.

Available from: https://www.actionaidusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Power-for-the-People.pdf
Schiffer A (2014) Community Power Scotland: From Remote Island Grids to Urban Solar Co-operatives [Online]. Edinburgh: Friends of the Earth Scotland.

Available from: http://www.communitypower.scot/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/CommunityPowerScotlandOct2014Web.pdf

Schiffer A (2016) Designers In International Development: a reflection on designing Gambian energy futures. [PhD Thesis]. Queen's University Belfast.