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Energy biographies: narrative genres, lifecourse transitions and practice change
Christopher Groves (Cardiff), Karen Henwood (Cardiff), Fiona Shirani (Cardiff), Catherine Butler (Exeter), Karen Parkhill (York), Nick Pidgeon (Cardiff)
www.energybiographies.org
Energy Biographies project (2011-present)
• QLL biographical interviews▫ Four sites: Cardiff (Ely,
Peterston), Lammas, Royal Free Hospital (RFH, London)
▫ 3 longitudinal interviews (original group of 74 in first round narrowed down to 36 for rounds 2 & 3)
▫ 6 months between interviews
Lammas, West Wales
Royal Free Hospital,
LondonPeterston, Cardiff
Ely, Cardiff
Stories of transition•Interviews elicited stories of transition
▫E.g. house moves, going to university, job change, retirement, taking in elderly relatives…
•…and the implications of such changes for how energy use changes in turn
•Longitudinal approach tracks changes in practices over time
•Explores role of narratives in making sense of change
Research Context• History of energy and behaviour
change agendas• Encouraging individual
reflexivity towards social practices that consume electricity & gas (heating, lighting, entertainment)▫ Information▫ Incentives▫ Action
• Individuals as agents of change: ‘resource men’ (Strengers, 2013)
Salford Council
campaign (UK,
2013)
Vanderbilt Universitycampaign
(USA, 2015)
Behaviour change: a dominant policy and research narrative
• Instance of shared narrative genre (Mulvey 1987): reflexive progress
• Dominant story structure for understanding social change: control over contingency
• Identifies particular subjects (consumers, technological experts) as agents of change
• Lifecourse transitions as ‘decisive moments’ that offer opportunities to promote change
• Recall earlier examples of unsuccessful lifecourse transition narratives and threats to identity
• Are liminoid narratives (in which progress and individual agency are valorized) subject to specific vulnerabilities?
Example: ‘Lucy’ (Peterston)• The ‘resource (wo)man’
• The ‘good host’
“I don’t think I really feel guilty I just think I’m aware and it does make me cross when like Sean especially just is deliberately almost you know wasting it […]”
“[…] we have a log fire and they’re probably super inefficient aren’t they in heating a room? […] we’ve put massive radiators in our new house cos its really Victorian, tall ceilings, and so we just don’t need a wood burner to be on at any point but actually it’ll sort of make the room […].”
“Cos we love being outside, we just love that you can you know go, we were sitting out there one evening … it was like midnight and you could have a drink outside still and it’s so lovely here cos it’s so quiet and everything so but you wouldn’t have been able to do it without that […]. So that’s our kind of, we know it’s really bad but we’re still going to use it.”
‘I never really wanted to waste money, energy but now I think it’s just, when I got my last energy bill, I couldn't believe it.’
Lucy’s story•Discrepancy between narrative and
experience•Lucy’s house move: liminoid transition
(better quality of life)•Re-creation of identity: host for friends in
rural setting, focus on creating perfect rural home
•Conflict between two liminoid narrativesPreliminal
• Mother• ‘Resource
woman’
Liminal
• Reflexive/ individualised rituals of change
• Friendships in question
Lucy’s story• Encounter with contingency in
the form of identity conflict• Reflexive liminoid narrative of
change (‘better quality of life’) cannot resolve clash between itself and other liminoid narratives▫ ‘Resource woman’ (rational
manager) vs ‘good host’ (caring for attachments)
• New practices and ‘rituals’ embody rather than resolve conflict
• Lucy manages this conflict in the course of her narrative through disavowal
“I never really wanted to waste money, energy but now I think it’s just, when I got my last energy bill, I couldn't believe it”
“we know it’s really bad but we’re still going to use it.”
Implications: contingency and ‘cultural fixes’
• From the data: widespread pattern▫ framing of change as liminoid/
progressive▫ In conflict with experiences
associated with lifecourse transition that undermine this script
• Qualitative longitudinal research suggests lifecourse transitions not unambiguous opportunities to promote further change
• Further research agenda : are cultural resources available to enable integration of problematic experiences of contingency?
• E.g. ‘Carbon Conversations’
“I argue that in each of the cases described below, a cultural fix is both possible and desirable. Such a fix would involve enriching our discursive repertoire by lifting taboos and expanding the range of acceptable story lines for individual lives. It would also entail creating supportive rituals for these unfortunate events.”
Layne, L. L. (2000). "The Cultural Fix: An Anthropological Contribution to Science and Technology Studies." Science, Technology &
Human Values 25(4): 492-519.
Thank you Energybiographies.org
Other team Members: Professor Karen Henwood, Professor Nick Pidgeon& Dr Fiona Shirani (Cardiff), Dr Karen Parkhill (now York)Dr Catherine Butler (now Exeter)