Research with consumers has revealed limited awareness of the sustainability impact of clothing (Goworek et al., 2012). Semi-structured interviews conducted with a range of experts in sustainable clothing to increase understanding of the challenges for sustainable clothing revealed that a focus on sustainability alone will not drive the necessary changes in consumers' clothing purchase, care and disposal behaviour for three reasons: (i) clothing sustainability is too complex; (ii) consumers are too diverse in their ethical concerns; and (iii) clothing is not an altruistic purchase. The findings identify the challenges that need to be addressed and the associated barriers for sustainable clothing. Interventions targeting consumers, suppliers, buyers and retailers are proposed that encourage more sustainable clothing production, purchase, care and disposal behaviour. These interventions range from normalising the design of sustainable clothing and increasing the ease of purchase, to shifting clothes washing norms and increasing upcycling, recycling and repair.
This paper applies paradox as a meta-theoretical framework for a reflexive analysis of roles within a participatory video study. This analysis moves us beyond simply describing roles as paradoxical, and thus problematic, to offer insights into the dynamics of the interrelationship between participant, researcher and video technology. Drawing on the concept of 'working the hyphens ' (Fine, 1994), our analysis specifically focuses on the complex enactment of seemingly paradoxical Participation-Observation and Intimacy-Distance 'hyphen spaces'. We explore how video technology mediates the relationship between participant and researcher within these spaces, providing opportunities for participant empowerment but simultaneously introducing aspects of surveillance and detachment. Our account reveals how video study participants manage these tensions to achieve participation in the project and the roles for the researched, the technology and the researchers that are an outcome of this process. Our analysis provides methodological advance in both bringing together paradox theory with reflexive work on research relationships to demonstrate how we can more adequately explore tensions in research practice, and in detailing the role of technology in the construction and management of these tensions.
This paper investigates the development of Demand Side Response (DSR) in the context of smart grid initiatives on regional distribution networks in the UK. DSR is an emerging approach to augment asset management in the electricity sector, where network capacity is acquired from demand side actors who reduce their electricity demand at peak times by using their own generators or by shifting electricity consumption outside peak periods. DSR has a different institutional arrangement compared to conventional network reinforcement, since capacity is acquired via commercial and contractual arrangements rather than ownership and property rights. Thus, we cast DSR as an institutional innovation and identify important actors in such developments. Key among these are 'aggregators' who are companies that aggregate the DSR capacity from a number of commercial customers to provide capacity for the Distribution Network Operator (DNO.) Exploratory case study research was conducted as part of a smart grid initiative, with a particular focus on the work of aggregators. Our findings identify aggregators as intermediary agents situated between utility firms and customers with DSR capacity and brokering relationships between them. Aggregators create receptivity for DSR by identifying potential adopters of DSR and construct persuasive and pervasive propositions that renders DSR a valid energy management initiative that accords with an organisation's business priorities and institutional arrangements. It is through this process that aggregators are important actors who facilitate and create a tighter fit between DSR and the contexts in which it is deployed.
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