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.

Comfort, cleanliness and conveniencethe social organization ofnormality

This is a high impact journal published by Annual Reviews, Inc., a nonprofit scientific publisher established in 1929 to promote the advancement of the sciences through critical reviews. Covering all areas of psychology research and practice, the Annual Review of Psychology is planned by a rotating committee of eight distinguished psychologists who invite qualified authors to contribute reviews of significant developments in the discipline.

Annual Review of Psychology

Contact with blue-green spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown beneficial for mental health.

Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS), e.g. energy monitors, are intermediary products that can visualize, manage, and/or monitor the energy use of other products or whole households. HEMS increasingly receive attention for their role in energy conservation in households. A literature review and a case study examine the mid-term effectiveness (more than 4 months) of HEMS. The case study presents the results of a 15-month pilot with a domestic energy monitor in the Netherlands. It explores the extent to which participants manage to sustain their initial electricity savings over time, with a special focus on the development of habitual energy-saving behaviour. The results show that the initial savings in electricity consumption of 7.8% after 4 months could not be sustained in the medium- to long-term. A second finding is that certain groups of people seem more receptive to energy-saving interventions than others. These participants quickly develop new habits and exhibit larger savings than other participants. Obviously, a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach for home energy monitors cannot be justified. For HEMS to be effective, a deeper understanding is needed that embraces social science, contextual factors, usability, and interaction design research.

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Home energy monitors : Impact over the medium-term

© 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

A Review of Systems and Technologies for Smart Homes and Smart Grids

Suitable for housing professionals, both academics and practitioners for teaching, discovery, and research needs, this title contains over 500 entries, listed alphabetically, and grouped into seven ...

International encyclopedia of housing and home

What factors increase the chance that residents/owners in housing cooperatives agree on sustainable energy efficient renovation? Based on 30 qualitative interviews with professional advisors in cooperative housing associations and chairman/board and residents in three chosen case studies, an analysis of opportunities and barriers for making a common decision on renovation is performed. Success criteria and barriers are found on the societal level as well as on the organizational/individual level. The barriers and success criteria identified on the societal level are: knowledge level on energy-efficient renovation among relevant actors, owner structure of the housing cooperative, and existing regulations and incentives. On the organizational and individual level, the following categories influencing renovation processes were identified: the time frame and organization of the process, understanding the residents` needs, economy, the information given, and the existence of available exemplary projects and role models. Based on the results of the study, ten guidelines that contribute to more successful decision making processes and increase the chances of sustainable energy efficient renovation in housing cooperatives are presented.

How to get residents/owners in housing cooperatives to agree on sustainable renovation

Energy is an important social resource on which we depend in our everyday lives; however, energy-related emissions constitute a major environmental burden, so in Sweden a major political goal is to ...

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Visualising household energy use in the interest of developing sustainable energy systems

Smart Cities denote a stronger integration of information technology into the organisation of a city and the interaction and participation of its citizens. In developing the concept further, we propose to understand Smart Cities through the lens of Social Machines and thus stronger focus on the city as a socio-technical construct. We draw from an interdisciplinary background of computer science and urban planning to reexamine and combine existing theories and find a common understanding. We substantiate our claim to the validity of the concept of Smart-City-as-a-Social-Machine with a thorough literature study and comparison. We discuss the resulting system complexity issues and ways to address them. We further propose areas where this understanding can be useful in furthering research on both the Smart City and the Social Machine topics.

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Erica Löfström

Papers

A Review of Systems and Technologies for Smart Homes and Smart Grids

International encyclopedia of housing and home

How to get residents/owners in housing cooperatives to agree on sustainable renovation

Visualising household energy use in the interest of developing sustainable energy systems

Understanding Smart Cities as Social Machines