22nd June, 4-6pm
D72/MR11 FASS Building
Intervening in Energy Consumption: learning from initiatives across countries, sites and cultures
Charlotte Louise Jensen, Post-Doctoral Researcher,
Department of Planning, Section of Sustainable Design and Transition, Aalborg University
Understanding energy consumption depends on understanding the timing, location, context, materiality and performance of a range of interconnected social practices (Shove and Walker, 2014), such as the practices that people perform in the realms of their homes and as part of their everyday lives, including heating, cleaning, cooking and driving. Taking this understanding of energy demand as a point of departure, ENERGISE – an innovative pan-European research initiative, funded under the EU Horizon 2020 programme for three years (2016-2019) – explores and analyses energy consumption in countries, societies and communities across Europe, specifically focussing on spatio-temporal configurations of social practices.
In this talk, I will give a brief overview of the project, and the methods of data collection and analysis specifically focussing on the opportunities and challenges experienced. I will also discuss our aim of developing action-research inspired, practice-oriented interventions, and invite discussion on how this might be achieved.
ENERGISE has three main aims, namely 1) to provide an account of how everyday practices and their particular spatio-temporal configurations are shaping household energy consumption, 2) to identify and describe different dynamics and trajectories of change related to these practice-configurations, which could be incorporated into intervention-oriented initiatives aimed at reducing domestic energy consumption and 3) to outline opportunities for practice theoretical and culturally sensitive forms of social inquiry that deploy various techniques, such as a type of ‘Living Laboratories’, to translate knowledge into action, with a view to facilitate the replacement of energy-intensive everyday practices with less resource-intensive ones.
For more details please visit the Institute for Social Futures webpages