Showing papers by "Elizabeth Shove published in 2003"
Book•
01 Jan 2003
TL;DR: Shove as discussed by the authors investigated the evolution of these changes, as well as the social meaning of the practices themselves, concluding that routine consumption is controlled by conceptions of normality and profoundly shaped by cultural and economic forces, and that habits are not just changing, but are changing in ways that imply escalating and standardizing patterns of consumption.
Abstract: Over the past few generations, expectations of comfort, cleanliness and convenience have altered radically, but these dramatic changes have largely gone unnoticed. This intriguing book brings together the sociology of consumption and technology to investigate the evolution of these changes, as well the social meaning of the practices themselves. Homes, offices, domestic appliances and clothes play a crucial role in our lives, but not many of us question exactly how and why we perform so many daily rituals associated with them. Showers, heating, air-conditioning and clothes washing are simply accepted as part of our normal, everyday lives, but clearly this was not always the case. When did the daily shower become de rigueur? What effect has air conditioning had on the siesta at one time an integral part of Mediterranean life and culture? This book interrogates the meaning and supposed normality of these practices and draws disturbing conclusions. There is clear evidence supporting the view that routine consumption is controlled by conceptions of normality and profoundly shaped by cultural and economic forces. Shove maintains that habits are not just changing, but are changing in ways that imply escalating and standardizing patterns of consumption. This shrewd and engrossing analysis shows just how far the social meanings and practices of comfort, cleanliness and convenience have eluded us.
869 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the idea that patterns of resource consumption reflect what are generally inconspicuous routines and habits, and make the case for an approach that concentrates on the construction and transformation of collective convention.
Abstract: Many commentators analyse green consumption as if it were an expression of individual environmental commitment. Such approaches suppose that the adoption of more sustainable ways of life depends upon the diffusion of "green" beliefs and actions through society. In this article, the author explores the idea that patterns of resource consumption (especially of energy and water) reflect what are generally inconspicuous routines and habits. Are such conventions evolving or standardising in ways that are increasingly resource intensive? In addressing this question with reference to three domains of daily life: comfort, cleanliness, and convenience, four simple models of change are outlined, two of which imply an inexorable escalation of resource consumption, two of which do not. The purpose of this illustrative exercise is to demonstrate the importance of understanding the systemic redefinition of "normal practice." Rather than taking individual behaviour to be the central unit of analysis, the case is made for an approach that concentrates on the construction and transformation of collective convention. This theoretical reorientation opens the way for programmes of research and policy informed by an appreciation of the technological and the commercial as well as the symbolic and cultural dimensions of more and less resource-intensive ways of life.
683 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the respecification of normal practice is of greater environmental significance than the ecological design of appliances and products with which taken-for-granted needs are met.
Abstract: It is often supposed that greater user involvement will result in more sustainable, more socially inclusive designs and technologies. I take issue with this proposition on the grounds that it fails to acknowledge the prior structuring of users' expectations or the socio-technical regimes and landscapes in which specific innovations take root. In developing this position I suggest that the re-specification of normal practice is of greater environmental significance than the ecological design of appliances and products with which taken-for-granted needs are met. It is useful to show how users configure and appropriate specific technologies but it is more important to follow the construction and reproduction of middle-range 'services' such as those of comfort, cleanliness and convenience. This begs the question as to how users are configured and technological systems are appropriated at macro and meso as well as micro levels of innovation. In exploring these issues with reference to air-conditioning, showeri...
122 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that principal-agent theory cannot capture the cumulative and collective consequences of the relationships it seeks to describe, and they use three examples of research programming (by the UK, the European Union and the European Science Foundation) to argue that Principal-Agent Theory cannot capture these consequences.
Abstract: Research programmes appear to represent one of the more powerful instruments through which research funders (principals) steer and shape what researchers (agents) do. The fact that agents navigate between different sources and styles of programme funding and that they use programmes to their own ends is readily accommodated within principal-agent theory with the help of concepts such as shirking and defection. Taking a different route, I use three examples of research programming (by the UK, the European Union and the European Science Foundation) to argue that principal-agent theory cannot capture the cumulative and collective consequences of the relationships it seeks to describe. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.
37 citations
01 Apr 2003
TL;DR: In this paper, the impact of road user charging or parking levy on socio-spatial inclusion/exclusion is assessed in the context of mobility and social exclusion in terms of access and mobility.
Abstract: The purpose of this project was two fold. One aim was to develop and test methods that local authorities might adopt in assessing and thinking about socio-spatial inclusion/exclusion in anticipation of the introduction and impact of road user charging or work place parking levies. Given concern that such measures might have a disproportionate impact on those already disadvantaged in socio-spatial terms, how might the specifically spatial aspects of social exclusion be defined, measured and monitored? And how might the impact of congestion charging schemes be assessed in these terms? A second aim was to draw in and develop recent work on the connections between mobility and social exclusion in order to enrich analysis of the relation between different kinds of socio-spatial access and forms of social exclusion. By socio-spatial we refer to those forms of inclusion/exclusion that are specifically related to access and mobility.
23 citations
01 Jan 2003
TL;DR: In this article, the authors trace lines of argument developed by psychologists, economists, architects, building scientists, anthropologists and sociologists and consider the theoretical resources they have enrolled in order to conceptualise and explain building-humanenvironment interactions.
Abstract: In the proposal for the Environment and Human Behaviour programme our attention was drawn to specific question: how to avoid future responses to global warming, including the increased uptake of air-conditioning, which promise to exacerbate rather than mitigate CO2 emissions (Ekins, 2002). Addressing this question requires engagement with a diverse range of cross-disciplinary debates variously concerned with the built fabric and technologies of the home, changing domestic practices and the relationship between the indoor and outdoor environment. Our ambitions in this paper are to trace lines of argument developed by psychologists, economists, architects, building scientists, anthropologists and sociologists and to consider the theoretical resources they have enrolled in order to conceptualise and explain building-humanenvironment interactions. We begin by sketching out three broad lines of debate (about individual behaviour, consumption practices and systems of provision) relevant to understanding the relations between the home and the environment noting the scope and limitations of each approach. We then consider more closely the case of thermal comfort as a means of appreciating important differences in current ways of thinking about the processes involved in creating sustainable domestic environments. Finally, we discuss how different ways of conceptualising the environment and the home support different sorts of policy directions and outcomes, again with comfort as a point of reference.
9 citations
01 Oct 2003
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that principal-agent theory cannot capture the cumulative and collective consequences of the relationships it seeks to describe, and they use three examples of research programming (by the UK, the European Union and the European Science Foundation) to demonstrate that principalagent theory alone cannot capture these consequences.
Abstract: Research programmes appear to represent one of the more powerful instruments through which research funders (principals) steer and shape what researchers (agents) do The fact that agents navigate between different sources and styles of programme funding and that they use programmes to their own ends is readily accommodated within principal–agent theory with the help of concepts such as shirking and defection Taking a different route, I use three examples of research programming (by the UK, the European Union and the European Science Foundation) to argue that principal–agent theory cannot capture the cumulative and collective consequences of the relationships it seeks to describe
3 citations