Making “Sustainable Consumption” Matter: The Indoor Microclimate as Contested Cultural Artifact

Abstract

<jats:p> This article demonstrates how a cultural reading of consumption that focuses on the meaning and materiality of domestic indoor microclimates can contribute to conceptual developments in the field of practice theory that refocus attention on cultural patterns, including prevailing norms and prescriptions regarding indoor temperature and thermal comfort. Drawing on evidence collected during a research-led change initiative that encouraged people to reduce energy use in the home by lowering indoor temperature to 18°C, we deploy the heuristic device of “indoor microclimate as artifact” to show how the manifestation of this new artifact initiated significant changes in everyday practices that revolve around heating. We observe that these changes may also spill over into the public sphere – from home to workplace. By making the microclimate a tangible and visible thing, we describe how people appropriate and appreciate this new object of consumption, what it says about different bodies in diverse and bounded spaces, and what the artifact as a commodity reveals about broader systems of heating and energy provision, and associated actors. Due to the increasing spread of central heating and the growing importance of complex technological devices to monitor and control indoor temperature, heating is no longer a practice in and of itself for many urban dwellers in Europe. However, when people appropriate the indoor microclimate, new heating-related practices emerge that can lead to energy sufficiency. We thus argue that by deliberately “materializing” domestic indoor microclimate as part of a change initiative, more sustainable forms of energy use can be made to matter. </jats:p>

Conceptualising ethical consumption within theories of practice

“…Ethics related to sustainability (having less impact on the environment) may influence how we cook, transport ourselves or heat our homes, but ethics is never the goal of these practices. In this regard, my interest is in line with the approaches examining how culture can be conceptualised within theories of practice (Sahakian et al, 2020; Welch et al, 2020) or how larger phenomena threading through practices can be conceptualised (Hui et al, 2017). The concept of general understandings from Schatzki (2002) is suggested in some of this work (Welch et al, 2020; Welch and Warde, 2017) and is also the approach I suggest.…”

“…People discussing what is right implies a foundation, though objects of sustainable consumption are often intangible, for instance, the indoor climate. A way of dealing with this was demonstrated in living lab experiments, making the microclimate a cultural artefact that people can handle and discuss (Sahakian et al, 2020). Ethical consumption is also about making use of resources visible and communicating (scientific) knowledge.…”

Understanding air-conditioned lives: qualitative insights from Doha

“…Though investigating the various cultural dimensions involved in the global spread of airconditioning does not necessarily demand qualitative methods (for a recent survey example in India, see Khosla et al 2021), these studies demonstrate their potential for revealing them. Whether indoor climate control is experienced as uninspiring thermal 'monotony' (Healy 2008) is more a matter of unthinking 'addiction' (Hitchings 2011b), or rather nourishes a concerning environmental indifference (Sahakian et al 2020) that denies people the pleasure of honing their mundane heat management skills (Vannini & Taggart 2014): these are all questions that qualitative methods are well suited to exploring because of their openness to the characterisation that best captures the social experience of particular contexts. The present study applied these methods to Doha as a city that had yet to be studied in this way.…”

How does affluent consumption come to consumers? A research agenda for exploring the foundations and lock-ins of affluent consumption

“…The strength of these different studies is that they opposed very behavioural and individualistic approaches to consumption and utilised a social and structural vision that is much closer to reality. Scholars have shown strong inertia in consumption practices, owing to the collective frameworks that link the temporal coordination of activities within the household (Plessz and Wahlen, 2020) to the social norms or values that guide these social practices (Sahakian et al, 2020). However, this approach provides little clarity concerning why individuals adopt certain practices, or to put it in terms used by practice theorists, why a practice recruits practitioners.…”