The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Review of the literature relating to comfort practices and socio-technical systems

Review of the literature relating to comfort practices and socio-technical systems
Review of the literature relating to comfort practices and socio-technical systems
This paper approaches the literature on comfort and energy practices from a socio-technical systems perspective, reviewing relevant studies and recent thinking on how we study comfort and energy in the home. This constitutes a first cut at developing a theoretical position from which to explore the empirical data coming out of the CCC fieldwork.

The CCC study aims to reduce domestic energy consumption through an understanding of, and interventions in, comfort practices. Whilst “there is more to comfort than space heating and cooling, these two processes account for the lion’s share of domestic energy use in most western societies” (Shove 2003b: 396), where the aim of the CCC study is to encourage less energy intensive comfort practices rather than sacrifices in individual comfort in order to meet the desired reduction in energy consumption. The overlapping subjects of domestic energy consumption and comfort have been approached in a number of different ways within the psychological, sociological, technical and socio-technical literatures. Each of these literatures conceptualises agency differently, which has implications for the types of interventions that flow from a reading of these literatures; if we attribute agency to particular actors then this affects the types of interventions we develop and the types of results we expect them to have. For example, whilst a proponent of a socio-technical systems approach might argue that “comfort can only be understood through a perspective that accounts for historical, technical and social change” (Wilhite, 2009: 85), psychological approaches tend to stress the significance of individual attitudes and values, sociological approaches tend to stress the role of social structure, and technical approaches tend to stress the significance of the ability for different configurations of technologies to produce environmental conditions under which the majority of participants report feeling comfortable. In this paper, psychological, sociological and technical approaches to understanding and intervening in energy consumption and comfort practices are discussed from a socio-technical systems perspective, in order to draw out commonalities and empirical precedents that can inform our approach to – and analysis of – data collected during the CCC study.

This paper is structured as follows. Section 1 introduces a socio-technical systems approach, and situates this alongside other approaches by distinguishing between the objects of these approaches and their attribution of agency to different human and non-human actors. Section 2 focuses on psychological and sociological approaches to understanding and driving particular types of individual-level interactions within energy systems, including a discussion of the potential for information-based interventions to result in behaviour change. Section 3 considers the ‘parameterisation’ of comfort, or the ways that comfort has been constructed and institutionalised. Section 4 explores comfort as a socio-historical artefact, drawing from the socio-technical systems literature and distinguishing between two main ways of constructing comfort: as an attribute and as an achievement. This section concludes with a discussion of the types of intervention that may be appropriate to influence the socio-technical systems that comfort practices are both produced by and are involved in reproducing. Section 5 focuses on comfort as an everyday practice, including a discussion of practice-based approaches and empirical comfort studies. The paper concludes with section 6, which summarises the implications emerging from this literature review for the CCC study.
35
King's College London
Hinton, Emma
dae3aea5-0ef8-4030-aa22-58c1ac56b628
Hinton, Emma
dae3aea5-0ef8-4030-aa22-58c1ac56b628

Hinton, Emma (2010) Review of the literature relating to comfort practices and socio-technical systems (Environment, Politics and Development Working Paper Series, 35) London, GB. King's College London 53pp.

Record type: Monograph (Working Paper)

Abstract

This paper approaches the literature on comfort and energy practices from a socio-technical systems perspective, reviewing relevant studies and recent thinking on how we study comfort and energy in the home. This constitutes a first cut at developing a theoretical position from which to explore the empirical data coming out of the CCC fieldwork.

The CCC study aims to reduce domestic energy consumption through an understanding of, and interventions in, comfort practices. Whilst “there is more to comfort than space heating and cooling, these two processes account for the lion’s share of domestic energy use in most western societies” (Shove 2003b: 396), where the aim of the CCC study is to encourage less energy intensive comfort practices rather than sacrifices in individual comfort in order to meet the desired reduction in energy consumption. The overlapping subjects of domestic energy consumption and comfort have been approached in a number of different ways within the psychological, sociological, technical and socio-technical literatures. Each of these literatures conceptualises agency differently, which has implications for the types of interventions that flow from a reading of these literatures; if we attribute agency to particular actors then this affects the types of interventions we develop and the types of results we expect them to have. For example, whilst a proponent of a socio-technical systems approach might argue that “comfort can only be understood through a perspective that accounts for historical, technical and social change” (Wilhite, 2009: 85), psychological approaches tend to stress the significance of individual attitudes and values, sociological approaches tend to stress the role of social structure, and technical approaches tend to stress the significance of the ability for different configurations of technologies to produce environmental conditions under which the majority of participants report feeling comfortable. In this paper, psychological, sociological and technical approaches to understanding and intervening in energy consumption and comfort practices are discussed from a socio-technical systems perspective, in order to draw out commonalities and empirical precedents that can inform our approach to – and analysis of – data collected during the CCC study.

This paper is structured as follows. Section 1 introduces a socio-technical systems approach, and situates this alongside other approaches by distinguishing between the objects of these approaches and their attribution of agency to different human and non-human actors. Section 2 focuses on psychological and sociological approaches to understanding and driving particular types of individual-level interactions within energy systems, including a discussion of the potential for information-based interventions to result in behaviour change. Section 3 considers the ‘parameterisation’ of comfort, or the ways that comfort has been constructed and institutionalised. Section 4 explores comfort as a socio-historical artefact, drawing from the socio-technical systems literature and distinguishing between two main ways of constructing comfort: as an attribute and as an achievement. This section concludes with a discussion of the types of intervention that may be appropriate to influence the socio-technical systems that comfort practices are both produced by and are involved in reproducing. Section 5 focuses on comfort as an everyday practice, including a discussion of practice-based approaches and empirical comfort studies. The paper concludes with section 6, which summarises the implications emerging from this literature review for the CCC study.

Text
HintonWP301.pdf - Other
Restricted to Registered users only
Download (1MB)

More information

Published date: 2010
Organisations: Social Sciences

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 342182
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/342182
PURE UUID: fb3ea17b-30f0-45c1-b608-611e2dfabe90

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 14 Aug 2012 15:54
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 11:48

Export record

Contributors

Author: Emma Hinton

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×