Most policies for the regeneration of urban neighbourhoods raise questions about social balance, particularly when, as is the current situation in Britain, social inclusion is a key theme of government policies. In practice, however, concerns about social segregation are mostly manifest in relation to social housing estates (meaning estates managed by local authorities, housing associations, and other types of non-profitmaking housing agencies). Social housing accounts for about 23% of the housing stock in Britain (Wilcox, 1998, page 95). It has experienced a long history of`residualisation', meaning a tendency to house only those types of householdsöthe poor, unemployed, those experiencing a relationship breakdown, people in debt, and people with a history of mental illness^who have little choice in where they live (Cole and Furbey, 1994, pages 82^85). At the same time, in the absence of countermeasures, residualisation is generally accompanied within social housing by a sifting process that forces the most vulnerable households into less attractive accommodation (Willmott and Murie, 1988, pages 40^43). Despite its significance, the literature on social balance in social housing is scattered. It comprises a mixture of government statements, surveys of housing practice, and local case studies. It deserves clarification and synthesis, as is the aim here. In the first section we reflect on the use of discourse as an analytical method. The examination of discourse, in turn, establishes a framework for the remaining sections. Discourse analysis and its application Assessments of social balance and related terms such as social mix presuppose that the terms can be easily defined. Therein lies a difficulty. Social balance and mix cover numerous overlapping indicators of the characteristics of a population, including class, income, employment status, age, and ethnicity. They also apply variously to different spatial scalesöthe street, the neighbourhood, and groups of neighbourhoods. Social mix' is merely a description that may apply to virtually any urban neighbourhood. No neighbourhood has a completely homogenous population. Social`balance' is intangible
Oral history provides a means of understanding heating behaviour through encouraging respondents to articulate the past in terms of stories. Unlike other qualitative methods, oral history foregrounds the ontology of personal experiences in a way that is well suited to revealing previously undocumented phenomena in the private world of the home. Three types of change may be distinguished: long term historical change, change associated with the life-cycle stage of the individual and sudden change. A sample of eight in-depth interviews is used to demonstrate the potential of oral history in the study of home heating. The themes to emerge from the interviews include early memories of the home, the financial struggle to heat the home, the influence of childhood experiences in adulthood and the association between warmth and comfort. For the future, domestic comfort, energy conservation and carbon reduction need to be reconciled with one another. Finally, a third type -and this is the interest here -comprises the personal stories of individuals that may be collected to create oral history.The aim is to provide a 'proof of concept' of oral history in energy research, that is to say a demonstration of its feasibility, validity and usefulness. The aim is, therefore, not just to demonstrate the methodology, but to show how oral history can be used to illuminate issues. Other researchers are, at present, using oral storytelling methods to illustrate and engage the public in histories of the use and exploitation of energy by local communities in the UK.1 'Coal fires, steel houses and the man in the moon', byDarby (2017), published in this same special edition, has a similar theme in revealing the story of a local experiences of energy transition. In addition, public engagement is a theme in large-scale storytelling exercises undertaken by the mass media, for example by the US National Public Radio 2 and the British Broadcasting Corporation.3 However, searches undertaken by the paper's authors have not identified any comparable study, in the UK or elsewhere, using storytelling and specifically the methods of oral history to investigate heating as an aspect of the history of the home.The paper is divided into three main sections:First: an explanation of the advantages and distinctiveness of oral history;Secondly, a review of the themes that might be expected to arise in the stories of respondents; andFinally an analysis of the accounts given by eight respondents. Why storytelling as oral history?Oral history is an extension of various qualitative and survey research methods that seek to capture previously undocumented phenomena in the private world of the house and home-a world that technologists, designers and energy researchers can struggle to access (Stevenson and Leaman, 2010
In 2007, the UK Government announced an ambitious zero-carbon target for all new housing in England. This paper shows how the definition and its associated policies emerged from discourses of environmental policy innovation; how the problem subsequently became framed as one of mainstreaming, consequent upon the apparent success of experimental schemes and defined in more detail through the interaction between pressure group politics and the technical analyses that accompanied the government's consultation exercises. Finally, it shows how regional and local variations in housing and property markets are likely to influence the ease of zero carbon development. The analysis uses concepts drawn from both the science and technology literature and the literature on policy implementation.
As a method of qualitative research, video offers a means of looking into the world of a respondent and a means of stimulating a dialogue, both with the respondent and others. Video requires, however, the application of additional ethical procedures and may also increase refusal rates, if it is publicly disseminated. Applied to the home, the use of video reveals both practice and identity. Video records practice, showing how the spaces within a home are used at a particular time. For this reason, video is well adapted to understanding the implications of living in a home with an innovative design and technology, with all the complexities that this commonly involves. Equally, video communicates the appearance of the home and of its occupants to whoever is watching. Video is, therefore, intimately connected to identity and the home as a place.
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