Sustainable Energy Consumption And Society

by Goldblatt, David L.

• ISBN13: 9781402030864
• ISBN10: 140203086X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-02-28
• Publisher: Springer Verlag

Summary

What drives developed countries' high rates of energy and resource consumption? How important are individual efforts versus technological or social innovations for environmental sustainability? A multidisciplinary study combining social science, energy analysis, and risk communication, this work occupies a unique niche in the literature. Few treatments of energy and the environment approach the problem through the larger social science framework of sustainable consumption, while sociological studies of consumption eschew quantitative modelling. This book incorporates both, using theories, research, and computer-aided interviews to illustrate the range and relative effectiveness of interventions that support sustainable energy consumption. Based on award-winning research at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, this book should be of interest to academics, agencies, and activists working on the interaction of energy, the environment, and society. It is also readily accessible to the group it is primarily concerned with: the educated lay public.

Author Biography

David L. Goldblatt was awarded the 2003 ETH Medal for Outstanding Doctoral Work. He is currently a science and Technology Policy Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Table of Contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

List of Abbreviations

Preface

Acknowledgments

Sustainable Consumption And The Public's Room To Maneuver In Energy Use

Introduction

The consumer society

Consumption trajectories in Western Europe

North-South disparities, Northern consumerist models, and global resource constraints

The evolving international discourse on sustainable consumption

Consumption or production: Which is the better focus for addressing environmental problems?

Room to maneuver in energy use

Northern society's discretion in energy use

Individuals' discretion

Research questions and challenges in this book

Targets Of Intervention For Sustainable Consumption

Introduction

Efficiencies, patterns, and levels of consumption

Patterns of consumption

Efficiency and dematerialization

Levels of consumption

An expanded multi-disciplinary analysis of consumption's driving forces and possibilities for intervention

Consumption critiques

Psychological and behavioral treatments

Social treatments

Economic treatments

Conclusion: Policy syntheses and political implications

Altering consumption: top-down or bottom-up?

Political implications and alternatives

Energy, Environment, And Society: Knowledge And Risk Communication

Introduction

Alternative research approaches and a frame for discussing knowledge in the context of discretionary and non-discretionary energy consumption

Introduction: Two approaches and two constructs

Selected topics in the Energy-Revealing approach and actors' discretionary energy consumption

The Social-Revealing approach and less discretionary influences on energy consumption

Energy and risk communication

Public communication

Risk communication

Final comments and further applications

Field Study With Computer-Aided Interviews

Introduction

Experimental hypotheses and user questions

Software development and modeling

Original version of the Personal ECO2-Calculator

Interview version of the Personal ECO2-Calculator

Interviewee recruitment

Interview description and guideline

Data capture, storage, and analysis means

Subjects' biographical profiles

Results

Subject groups

Terms and comments

Hypotheses A and B: Freedom of Choice and Capability

Hypotheses C, D, and E: Non-discretionary accounting, Perception of less discretionary influences, and Communicating about Energy Consumption

Hypothesis H: Separation of social from technological influences

Hypothesis G: Cross-temporal and cross-cultural comparisons

Consumer-citizen involvement in affecting less-discretionary forces

Energy Communication

Subjects' evaluation of the program and the interview session

Achievements, Open Questions, And Lessons Learned

Which questions have been answered?

Top-down or bottom-up?

Metric for gauging experimental success

Success in researching and applying domestic sustainable consumption

Pedagogical use and timing

Lifestyle groups and differentiated approaches to sustainable consumption

Personal responsibility

Success in risk communication

Suggestions for further research

Some open questions

Divergence from the prevailing environmental framework

References

Index

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