Achieving sustainability transitions in residential energy use across Europe: The importance of problem framings

Jensen, Charlotte Louise; Goggins, Gary; Røpke, Inge; Fahy, Frances

doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2019.110927

Cited by 26 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…There is a need for research to be reproduced in other cultural contexts and countries and to explore what encompasses a need for individuals and communities, as well as to examine what are suitable satisfiers for those needs relevant to their context. Given that our study indicates that it is important to consider perceptions of necessity and luxury items from a comfort and convenience perspective, future researchers interested in the creation of consumption corridors may wish to consider incorporating an alternative practice theoretical perspective (see Jensen et al 2019;Sahakian et al 2019;Godin, Laakso, and Sahakian 2020), which may better enable a critical in-depth exploration of existing expectations around the notions of comfort and convenience.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Creating context for corridors of consumption: the case of Ireland

Lavelle

Fahy

2021

Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy

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Global consumption levels are significant contributors to detrimental environmental change and the current climate crisis. Across Ireland, domestic consumption levels have increased dramatically during the past three decades. Public discourse has focused primarily on minimum levels of consumption, with media outlets frequently reporting on minimum wages and acceptable minimum levels of food, shelter, and healthcare. A dearth of dialogue exists on the concept of maximum levels of consumption. This article proffers that the concept of consumption corridors provides a timely lens to initiate discussion and to critically consider the potential of ascertaining maximum levels of consumption across Ireland. Drawing on analyses of an extensive database of 1,500 households across two policy regions À Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland À we argue that there is no single universally just and ecologically sustainable way of setting limits to consumption. Numerous factors must be considered including scale, policy influences, cultural understandings, and varying expectations of standards of living and quality of life. The article reports on participants' perceptions of material items as needs and satisfiers and aims to advance methodological applications of the consumption-corridors concept. This study offers evidence highlighting a need for tailored sustainability policies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Creating context for corridors of consumption: the case of Ireland

Lavelle

Fahy

2021

Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy

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“…To date, the majority of change initiatives in Europe that target household-energy consumption have typically focused on changing technology or individuals' behavior, for example by guiding consumers toward more sustainable alternatives or making consumption more efficient through technology (Jensen et al 2019). However, the ability of such change initiatives to bring about real gains and lasting energy savings remains subject to intense debate (e.g., Rau et al 2019;Watson et al 2020), partly because they do not fundamentally modify the underlying practices or challenge routines.…”

Section: Changing Practices At Community Levelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We chose a challenge as an engagement method. This choice is based on our analysis of more than 1,000 initiatives for sustainable energy use in Europe (Jensen 2017;Jensen et al 2019), which provides a summary of different methods that may work in different contexts (Heiskanen et al 2018). For laundry, households challenged themselves to reduce their washing cycles, either by half, which was the target suggested by the researchers, or by setting their own goal, if the suggested challenge was not considered feasible.…”

Section: Designing Living Labs To Experiments With Practice Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Challenging practices: experiences from community and individual living lab approaches

Matschoss

Fahy

Rau

et al. 2021

Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy

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In this article, we examine a change initiative designed to involve households in testing ways to transform two everyday practicesheating and doing laundry. The research design included an examination of the challenges of changing practices either in a setting that fosters collective engagement or with individual households. Two different types of living labs were carried out simultaneously in eight European countries in Autumn-Winter 2018. We reflect on differences in results in terms of both changes in practices and the experiences of participating households that we argue can be at least partially attributed to householders' engagement in different types of living labs. We discuss the implications of an individualfocused vs. community-oriented approach for change initiatives seeking to challenge social norms for sustainability transitions, concentrating in particular on differences in the nature of participants' engagement and their willingness and ability to challenge routine practices. This is complemented by analytical reflections on the differences in design, interaction, and performance between the two types of living labs. We show that an explicit focus on collaborative engagement in living labs can produce results that reflect shared experiences, community support, challenging established norms, and collective commitment toward change.

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“…Nelson and Scheider (2018) provide an encompassing overview of approaches in the field. Also, Jensen et al (2019) assess that sufficiency is yet underrepresented in sustainable energy consumption initiatives.…”

Section: 2 Theory: the Emergence Of The Sufficiency Paradigm In Housing Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

Can ‘Sufficiency’ reconcile social and environmental goals? A Q-methodological analysis of German housing policy

Bohnenberger

2020

J Hous and the Built Environ

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In housing policy, social and environmental targets often appear to be in conflict. This article examines to which degree the rising sustainability strategy ‘sufficiency’ has the potential to overcome this alleged trade-off between social and environmental goals in Germany. The positions of relevant stakeholders from social, environmental, and housing interest groups in Germany on housing policy are analysed by use of Q-methodology. Four distinct positions towards sufficiency-oriented housing policy are identified. The results show under which conditions sufficiency is a promising strategy to reconcile declared social and environmental targets in German housing policy. If pursued by a coalition of housing organizations and environmental interest groups, sufficiency has the potential of becoming a major paradigm in housing policy in Germany and beyond.

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Achieving sustainability transitions in residential energy use across Europe: The importance of problem framings

Cited by 26 publications

References 21 publications

Creating context for corridors of consumption: the case of Ireland

Creating context for corridors of consumption: the case of Ireland

Challenging practices: experiences from community and individual living lab approaches

Can ‘Sufficiency’ reconcile social and environmental goals? A Q-methodological analysis of German housing policy

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