Sustainable Practices Research Group
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Manchester
Department Name: Social Sciences
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Publications
Elizabeth Shove (Author)
(2011)
Practices, intermediary devices and energy consumption : identifying the missing pieces
Elizabeth Shove (Author)
(2010)
Tracking 22degrees C : characterising the multiple geographies of sociotechnical regimes
Elizabeth Shove (Author)
(2010)
Conventions of comfort, cooling and the indoor climate
Elizabeth Shove (Author)
(2011)
Climate change and transitions in practice : setting and challenging agendas
Elizabeth Shove (Author)
(2012)
Methods of capturing the dynamics of social practice
Elizabeth Shove (Co-Author)
(2011)
The weather, inside and out : a discussion of diversity and convergence in city climates
Elizabeth Shove (Speaker)
(2012)
Putting practice into policy
Foster C
(2012)
The entanglement of consumer expectations and (eco) innovation sequences: the case of orange juice
in Technology Analysis & Strategic Management
Franklin A
(2014)
(Dis)connected communities and sustainable place-making
in Local Environment
Franklin A
(2011)
Moving beyond the alternative: sustainable communities, rural resilience and the mainstreaming of local food
in Local Environment
| Description | That everyday practices shape the ways in which people consume goods and services. Those practices are configured by a range of elements - which for simplicity can be summarised as materials, skills and competency, and meanings - that constrain the ways in which any practice can be performed and what pleasure or significance those who perform the practices experience. Behaviour change is often presented as a matter of changing individual attitudes or beliefs - rather than recognising that those attitudes and beliefs are shaped by the configuration of practices. It follows, that to change 'behaviour' it is necessary to focus on the elements that shape practices. SPRG's research provides empirical evidence of the above processes together with policy insights related to the practice domains of eating, homes, water-use and energy. |
| Exploitation Route | Applications in further research, especially the EPSRC DEMAND Research Centre (Lancaster University) |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Creative Economy,Energy,Environment,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Retail,Transport |
| URL | http://sci.cc.demo.faelix.net/sustainable-practices-research-group |
| Description | Behaviour change report recommendations and framework has been adopted by the Scottish Government. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2011 |
| Sector | Environment |
| Impact Types | Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | Behaviour change |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Professor Elizabeth Shove gave evidence on behaviour change to the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Beyond behaviour : social theory and climate change policy |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Explores how the ABC (Attitudes, Behaviour, Choice) model influences policy making which in turn impacts upon everyday life. Introduces new theoretical perspectives that reframe some of the sustainability challenges facing our societies. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Beyond behaviour : social theory and climate change policy |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Introduces the ABC model (Attitudes, Behaviour, Choice) that is influencing policy making, resulting in interventions to reorientate everyday life practices. Reflects upon new theoretical perspectives that help to reframe the major sustainability challenges facing our societies. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Comparing practices over time and space |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Presentation given at 'Studying sustainable practices : methodological challenges and puzzles' workshop. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| URL | http://www.sprg.ac.uk/news-events/sprg-events/workshop-studying-sustainable-practices-methodological... |
| Description | Consumers' willingness to pay for green energy |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Paper presented to the ISW University of Maryland and ETH Energy Economics workshop. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Consumption by proxy : analysing traces of water |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Ways of using various parameters to investigate domestic water use. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Cooling and resilience to heat |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Presented at the 'Scenarios of future energy vulnerability and resilience under climate change' workshop. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| URL | http://www.dur.ac.uk/dei/events/?eventno=8690 |
| Description | De-centralisation and energy futures |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Presented as part of an ESRC workshop series on 'Energy and geographies'. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Dealing the dirt : innovating ways of disrupting cleanliness practices in peoples everyday lives |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Exploring ways of changing practices relating to washing, bathing and showering in domestic situations in the UK. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | District heating comes to ecotown : zero carbon housing and the rescaling of energy provision in the UK |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Paper presented at "From networked to post-networked urbanism: New infrastructure configurations and urban transitions: International roundtable workshop", July 2012. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Economic growth, prosperity and sustainability : a contradiction? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Introduction:Consumption, Economic Growth and Prosperity' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Energy services and social practice : the dynamics of indoor life, cooling and air conditioning |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Seminar paper exploring energy efficiency interventions, technologies and practices in relation to thermal regulation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Energy services and social practices : tracing and explaining the dynamics of indoor life and thermal technologies |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | The pursuit of more sustainable consumption has generated much thinking about the meaning of sustainability, but less about consumption and the constitution of demand that underpins it. Whilst the amount of a significant resource consumed might be a dominant metric, it is not (necessarily) resources themselves that are demanded, rather the services that those resources are enrolled in providing. This is evident in the case of energy, where services such as light, warmth and mobility are accessible both with and without the consumption of energy as electricity or fuel; and where neither electricity or fuel are inherently valued entities beyond the services they provide. Taking a further step, we can position the demand for energy services as a moment in and outcome of a myriad of routine, changing and interwoven social practices, rather than seeing accessing an energy service, such as warmth, as a practice in and of itself. In this paper I consider these understandings of how energy comes to be consumed through the outcomes of research tracing the use of thermal technologies (for both heating and cooling) in a diversity of non-domestic spaces and settings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Engagement interaction and influence : strategies and challenges for the Sustainable Practices Research Group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Presented as part of an Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation (ISSTI) seminar series. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Everyday practice and water : reflections on the upscaling of practice based approaches to water demand in the UK |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Exploring methods of upscaling practice based approaches within the UK domestic water industry. In her presentation she will reflect upon the research results of the ARCC-Water and SPRG projects, which were based on theories of practice but included a methodological experiment to 'scale up' these sociological and geographical theoretical approaches to quantitative and mixed methodology. The focus of the presentation will be the 1800 person practice based survey across the south and south-east of England and the analysis of which potentially reveals an alternative approach to 'customer segmentation' that could be applied in the UK Water industry. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Fine dining |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Alan Warde authored this article in the Brazilian technology magazine 'Exame'. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Habits? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Given at Helsinki Collegium of Advanced Studies Event |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | How to eat (theoretically) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Sustainable consumption with relation to food practices. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Keeping cool |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Presentation given at a InCluESEV workshop. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Lessons learned from successful and failed cases of technology, behavior and practice change |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | National Science Foundation Workshop: Changing the climate: innovation in the built environment for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Although architecture is conventionally understood to be a fine or applied art designed by singular individuals, that popular misunderstanding is best reframed by a brief analysis of data related to climate change. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the construction and operation of buildings accounted for 38% of CO2 emissions and 38.77% of North America's annual energy consumption in 2006. This amount is twice that contributed by the transportation sector, which the public generally identifies as the primary cause of climate change. Also by DOE's estimate, those percentages will increase to 50.1% and 43% respectively by 2030 (EERE 2006). To make matters even worse, the contribution of the built environment to GHG production jumps to 77% when the consequences of related transportation are added (Architecture 2030). These statistics are put in an urgent context by a Brookings Institution study which projects that by 2030, the U.S. will need a total of approximately 427 billion square feet of built space to accommodate growth (Nelson 2004). About 82 billion of that will be the replacement of existing space and 131 billion will be new space. In other words, by 2030, about half of the buildings in which Americans live, work, and shop will have been built after 2000. If we assume that these projections are even remotely reliable, it suggests that the construction and operation of buildings could ironically become, not a life-enhancing art, but the nation's single largest threat to public health, safety, welfare, and security. In this context the workshop will consider the built world to be a giant eco-socio-technical system (Moore 2007; Coutard 2006) rather than an assemblage of artful artifacts (Fischer 2009; Guy 2000; Guy 2005). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | On eating habits |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Sustainable practices relating to food |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Practice-hunting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Given at 'Studying Sustainable Practices: Methodological Challenges and Puzzles' workshop |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Practices by proxy : climate, consumption and water |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Suggestions for using proxies to determine domestic water consumption. Presentation given at the BSA Climate Change Study Group Event: 'Conceptual and methodological approaches for researching climate change at different societal scales'. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Practices by proxy : climate, consumption and water |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Participants in your research or patient groups |
| Results and Impact | Innovative ways of using proxies to establish domestic water consumption This was given at the Living Costs and Food Survey user meeting held at the Royal Statistical Society. This was given at the Living Costs and Food Survey user meeting held at the Royal Statistical Society. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| URL | http://slideshare.net/ben_anderson/practices-by-proxy-climate-consumption-and-water |
| Description | Practices by proxy : climate, consumption and water (and troubles with data) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Participants in your research or patient groups |
| Results and Impact | Paper presented at "Can Climate Change Policies Be Fair?" - Reflections on various approaches for investigating domestic consumption. Presentation given at the Royal Statistical Society, London Presentation given at the Royal Statistical Society, London |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| URL | http://www.slideshare.net/ben_anderson/practices-by-proxy-climate-consumption-and-water-and-troubles... |
| Description | Proxies of practice : socio-demographics and seasonality in water demand |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | CRESI Seminar series |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Public engagement in the low(er) carbon energy system : diversity, materiality, agency |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Presented at a 'Participation, power and sustainable energy futures' workshop. This was the fourth workshop in the ESRC seminar series 'Critical perspectives on public engagement in science and environmental risk'. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| URL | https://www.uea.ac.uk/env/esrcsems/sems/Walker |
| Description | Putting policy and intervention into 'practices' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Workshop presentation at "Conceptual and methodological approaches for researching climate change at different societal scales: BSA Climate Change Study Group Event", University of Southampton, March 2012. This paper explores methodological and conceptual approaches for researching climate change at different societal scales. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Relocation and change in eating habits : a comparative analysis of mixed couples in France and Britain |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | A poster presentation giving the first results and analysis from the 1st case study of the SPRG eating habits project |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Retrofitting cooling : air conditioning and the dynamics of the working indoors |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Exploring air conditioning |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Scaling practice : reflections on demand management and climate change research and policy for the UK water industry |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Presentation was given at the 'Beyond Behaviour Change' symposium at RMIT University, Melbourne. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Social practice and the material culture of energy demand |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Participants in your research or patient groups |
| Results and Impact | This was given as an invited presentation This presentation was given by invitation at the ESIEE Paris, Cite Descates This presentation was given by invitation at the ESIEE Paris, Cite Descates |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Social sciences and sustainable consumption |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Helsinki HUB (Finnish cooperative for furthering social innovation in relation to on contemporary political and environmental issues) sustainable consumption |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Social sciences and sustainable consumption |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Sustainability is arguably the most pressing political problem of the 21st century, a consequence of climate change and environmental degradation and depletion, soon to be exacerbated by a predicted massive expansion of the world's population. Patterns of personal and household consumption are major sources of pressure. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| URL | http://www.helsinki.fi/collegium/english/publications/Collegium_Newsletter_autumn2010.pdf |
| Description | Sustainable food consumption : the temporalities of eating practices |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | ESRC Symposium on Climate Change and Transitions in Practice |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | The 'everyman' of zero carbon housing : codified carbon performance and the imagined practices of future habitation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Zero carbon homes and predicting future requirements/lifestyles. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | The 'everyman' of zero carbon housing : codified carbon performance and the imagined practices of future habitation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Zero carbon housing and the predictions of future needs. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | The challenge of making consumption sustainable |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Retarding, mitigating or adapting to climate change will require radical alteration to consumption patterns. A substantial proportion of CO2 emissions are from domestic households, with travel, heating and cooling, and eating the practices with the heaviest footprints. As the economies of India, China, Brazil and Russia expand to incorporate the imperatives of global consumer culture, the aspirations of their populations might be expected to converge with those of the contemporary West. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| URL | http://www.uta.fi/yti/en/researchcollegium/news.html?id=53525 |
| Description | Theories of practice and questions of circulation, diffusion and reproduction : a discussion of global cooling and indoor climate |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Contribution to seminar on 'Geographies of practice'. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Tracing the dynamics of air conditioning : transitions, circulations and social practices |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Reflections upon the increasing use of air conditioning |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Water, water everywhere? : opportunities for social science, interdisciplinary, stakeholder engaged research and innovation for demand management |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Exploration of stakeholder engagement within the water industry. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | World cities and climate change : providing urban ecological security |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Participants in your research or patient groups |
| Results and Impact | Presentation to Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency in Rotterdam Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |