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Decarbonisation at home: the contingent politics of experimental domestic energy technologies

Bickerstaff, K.; Hinton, E.; Bulkeley, H.A.

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Authors

K. Bickerstaff

E. Hinton



Abstract

Policy efforts to reduce the carbon intensity of domestic energy consumption have, over the last three decades, been dominated by an almost dichotomous reading of the relationship between technology and social change. On the one hand, there is a conception of personal responsibility that constructs domestic energy users as key actors in the adoption and (appropriate) use of low carbon energy technologies; from this perspective, environmental change becomes a matter of mobilising personal capacities such that individuals make better choices. On the other hand, decarbonising homes is conceived to be an outcome of top-down infrastructural interventions, with householders (or end users) positioned as relatively passive agents who will respond to engineered efficiency in linear and predictable ways. In practice, both positions have been found wanting in terms of accounting for how (and why) change happens and in turn delivering on ambitious policy goals. The argument we develop in this article goes beyond critiquing these problematic framings of technology and the locus of agency. Drawing on three contrasting low carbon energy technology projects in the UK, we present an alternative perspective which foregrounds a more experimental, ad hoc and ultimately provisional mode of governing with domestic energy technologies. We reflect on the meaning and political implications of this experimental turn in transforming (and decarbonising) domestic energy practices.

Citation

Bickerstaff, K., Hinton, E., & Bulkeley, H. (2016). Decarbonisation at home: the contingent politics of experimental domestic energy technologies. Environment and Planning A, 48(10), 2006-2025. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518x16653403

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Apr 21, 2016
Online Publication Date Jun 14, 2016
Publication Date Oct 1, 2016
Deposit Date May 5, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Environment and Planning A
Print ISSN 0308-518X
Electronic ISSN 1472-3409
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 48
Issue 10
Pages 2006-2025
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518x16653403

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Copyright Statement
Bickerstaff, K. and Hinton, E. and Bulkeley, H.A. (2016) 'Decarbonisation at home : the contingent politics of experimental domestic energy technologies.', Environment and planning A., 48 (10). pp. 2006-2025. Copyright © 2016 The Author(s). Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.





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