ESRC End of Award Report

Transcription

1 ESRC End of Award Report For awards ending on or after 1 November 2009 This End of Award Report should be completed and submitted using the grant reference as the subject, to reportsofficer@esrc.ac.uk on or before the due date. The final instalment of the grant will not be paid until an End of Award Report is completed in full and accepted by ESRC. Grant holders whose End of Award Report is overdue or incomplete will not be eligible for further ESRC funding until the Report is accepted. We reserve the right to recover a sum of the expenditure incurred on the grant if the End of Award Report is overdue. (Please see Section 5 of the ESRC Research Funding Guide for details.) Please refer to the Guidance notes when completing this End of Award Report. Grant Reference RES Grant Title Transitions in Practice: Climate Change and Everyday Life Grant Start Date Total Amount 258, Grant End Date Expended: Grant holding Institution Lancaster University Grant Holder Elizabeth Shove Grant Holder s Contact Details Address Department of Sociology, Lancaster University, LA1 4YT Co-Investigators (as per project application): Institution e.shove@lancaster.ac.uk Telephone Non-technical summary Please provide below a project summary written in non-technical language. The summary may be used by us to publicise your work and should explain the aims and findings of the project. [Max 250 words] If there is to be any effective response to climate change, substantially and significantly new ways of living are urgently required. To date, policy makers have sought to increase the efficiency with which existing services are provided and persuade individuals to adopt proenvironmental behaviours. Such measures are unlikely to have effect at the rate required to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Recognition that most consumption, including environmentally significant consumption, takes place not for its own sake but as part of the 1

2 effective accomplishment of social practice reframes this agenda. From this point of view, the central question is how the complex of practices that constitute daily life -leisure, cleaning, food provisioning, mobility and more might be reconfigured on a massive scale. The fellowship showed that switching attention from individual behaviour to systems of practice generates new ways of thinking and acting, and requires new forms of social scientific input. In response, the research developed a distinctive method of conceptualising transitions in social practice and of analysing implications for consumption, energy and water demand, and everyday life. The fellowship results have been published in 2 books; 8 journal articles and 6 book chapters, presented at more than 50 lectures and seminars, including an Extraordinary Lecture /performance entitled How Social Science Can Help Climate Change Policy, and through an interactive Exhibition of Ideas designed with members of the fellowship s social change-climate change working party. See for further details. 2. Project overview a) Objectives Please state the aims and objectives of your project as outlined in your proposal to the us. [Max 200 words] 1. To develop social scientific understanding of how complex systems of practice and consumption emerge, persist and disappear and with what consequence for the spatial and temporal ordering of daily life and the potential for mitigating or adapting to climate change. 2. To extend the range of social theoretical input to climate change policy by generating and encouraging new forms of academic and non-academic interaction, adding value to existing research and developing a programme of cross-sectoral capacity building. 3. To discover how social scientific analyses of systemic transitions in practice have shaped climate change policy and governance in other countries and contexts - and what lessons can be learned for the UK. b) Project Changes Please describe any changes made to the original aims and objectives, and confirm that these were agreed with us. Please also detail any changes to the grant holder s institutional affiliation, project staffing or funding. [Max 200 words] 1. As described in the first progress report, retrospectively following cases of social science input to climate change policy proved to be impossible. I consequently focused on more contemporary policy initiatives and on the working party process. In the first year I invested considerable time in working with business, specifically the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, to no effect (progress report 1). 2. I spent less time reviewing existing research data than planned. While some of these materials fed into various publications, I ended up doing more original research, including a programme 2

3 of interviews on the Cool Biz policy in Japan. 3. Designing and running the social change-climate change working parties took much more effort than anticipated. Since these were vital for the leadership aspect of the fellowship, I nonetheless organised an extra working party (Jan 2011) to prepare for the Extraordinary lecture, and an additional international seminar (March 2012). 4. The Sustainable Practices Research Group was funded during the course of the fellowship. The fellowship was extended by six months, allowing me to fulfil my management/ research role within SPRG. 5. I was invited to give many more international lectures than expected, hence the under spend on travel. c) Methodology Please describe the methodology that you employed in the project. Please also note any ethical issues that arose during the course of the work, the effects of this and any action taken. [Max 500 words] 1. Theoretical development, synthesis and writing. This work involved the creative integration of concepts of social practice, bringing ideas and resources together from various disciplines, including sociology, geography, management and philosophy. 2. Review of secondary data, including policy documents and policy engagement. During the course of the fellowship I gave a total of 25 talks/presentations to non-academic audiences, and developed/discussed ideas about the role of social science and transitions in practice with people involved in climate change policy in the UK (DEFRA, DECC, DCLG), France, Australia, the USA, Sweden, Belgium, Japan, Portugal, New Zealand (video link), and Canada. This informed the production of five short reports/submissions of evidence/policy briefings, and fed into a number of academic articles. 3. Detailed case study of Japan s Cool Biz programme an innovative initiative designed to reduce the use of air-conditioning by changing conventions of clothing. With the help of Japan s Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), I managed to undertake a programme of 16 interviews in Japan with office workers, civil servants and the ex-minister of Environment (IGES co-interviewed and translated). This was not part of the planned research but it was immensely useful in showing some of the unexpected ways in which transitions in practice can come about. 4. The social change-climate change working parties were not designed as a vehicle for methodological innovation but this was their effect. During the course of the 3 main working parties (July 2009; January and July 2010) many novel techniques were developed for coproducing ideas about climate change and everyday practice (the 21 party members included PhD students and early career non-academics). In the process, the working parties and related exchanges became means of generating and undertaking, not just disseminating and exchanging, research ideas. Working party members were involved in script writing (for the two films produced as part of the fellowship, and for the extraordinary lecture itself) and exhibition design (9 interactive exhibits were produced, 3 in very close collaboration with WWF) all of which required a distinctive and creative approach to data collection and 3

4 synthesis, and to problem definition and presentation. 5. The fellowship was specifically designed as a Climate change leadership fellowship. As part of the leadership aspect I established a British Sociological Association Climate Change Study group, assisted by members of the fellowship working party. This has been very effective as a method of longer term academic capacity building in social science/climate change. d) Project Findings Please summarise the findings of the project, referring where appropriate to outputs recorded on the ESRC website. Any future research plans should also be identified. [Max 500 words] The dynamics of social practice: the fellowship has produced an innovative account of how social practices emerge, persist and disappear. This account is built around the following propositions. Social practices like daily showering, cycling, driving etc. involve the active integration of elements materials, meanings and forms of competence. These elements develop and circulate in different ways. This is important for how people are recruited to practices, and for how they defect from them. Processes of recruitment and circulation are in turn significant for how social practices develop and for how stronger and weaker links between practices are established. These linkages are sustained through various circuits of reproduction and it is through these that systems and complexes of practice emerge. In developing and articulating this abstract scheme, and exploring its policy implications, I have provided a new and useful framework with which to understand and address the challenges involved in moving towards a lower carbon society. Key outputs from this part of the research include: The Dynamics of Social Practice (Sage 2012); Sustainable Practice: social theory and climate change, (based on the fellowship symposium and edited by myself and Nicola Spurling, Routledge, forthcoming, 2013); Habits and their Creatures (in Warde (ed.) Habits, culture and practice: paths to sustainable consumption, Helsinki: forthcoming 2012); and Towards a theory of practice innovation (Technology Analysis and Strategic Management, 2010). The role of social science in climate change policy: During the course of the fellowship I have identified some of the reasons why contemporary climate change policy makes use of a relatively narrow range of social science. Some of this has to do with how the social world is represented in dominant policy paradigms and with how research agendas develop within social science. Fellowship publications dealing with both aspects of this topic include: Beyond the ABC and On the difference between chalk and cheese (Environment and Planning A, 2010 and 2011 respectively), Putting practice into policy (Contemporary Social Science, forthcoming 2012) and Social theory and climate change: questions often, sometimes and not yet asked, Theory Culture & Society, 2010). Transitions in energy use - case studies of comfort and mobility: I have extended some of my previous research as a means of better understanding transitions in energy use. Key contributions involve linking social theories of practice and consumption with the literature on transitions, through reference to changing conventions of comfort and indoor climate and to systems of mobility, especially cycling. These results are developed in various fellowship publications including: Energy Transitions in Practice (in Verbong and Loorbach (eds), Governing the Energy Transition, 2012); Governing transitions in the sustainability of everyday life (Research Policy, 2010); The shadowy side of innovation (Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 2012) and Comfort and Convenience (in Trentmann (ed), The Oxford Handbook of the history of consumption, 2012). An article on climate change policy and the tiny details of daily life is planned, building on my study of the Japanese Cool Biz programme. 4

5 e) Contributions to wider ESRC initiatives (eg Research Programmes or Networks) If your project was part of a wider ESRC initiative, please describe your contributions to the initiative s objectives and activities and note any effect on your project resulting from participation. [Max. 200 words] Mine was one of six climate change leadership fellowships. I contributed to one ESRC organised meeting in which other fellows participated. Harriet Bulkeley and I met fairly regularly during the course of our fellowships and I contributed to the workshop she coorganised with Simon Marvin on urban transitions in May I also gave a lecture on Energy and Everyday Life at Cardiff, linking up with Nick Pidgeon. There have been other formal and informal links with related ESRC investments. During the fellowship I served as a member of RESOLVE s advisory board (University of Surrey). I am on the management group and a key member of the ESRC funded Sustainable Practices Research Group (led by Dale Southerton at Manchester). There have been useful connections and cross-overs between the social change-climate change working party (part of my fellowship), and the FORGE an ESRC funded network and summer school programme on social science and transport/mobilities that I co-organise with Greg Marsden from Leeds Institute for Transport Studies. A number of the 21 social changeclimate change working party members had ESRC funded PhD studentships. Others were and/or are now employed as RAs on climate change related projects funded by the ESRC and EPSRC. 3. Early and anticipated impacts a) Summary of Impacts to date Please summarise any impacts of the project to date, referring where appropriate to associated outputs recorded on the Research Outcomes System (ROS). This should include both scientific impacts (relevant to the academic community) and economic and societal impacts (relevant to broader society). The impact can be relevant to any organisation, community or individual. [Max. 400 words] 5

6 Scientific: Through my fellowship publications (2 books, 6 chapters, 8 articles), and 55 national and international lectures I have changed the course of academic debate in the area of social science and climate change/behaviour change/energy. Over the last three years social theories of practice have become an important point of reference because of the fellowship. The Dynamics of Social Practice: Everyday Life and How it Changes, (Sage 2012) has received enthusiastic reviews and one of my articles, Beyond the ABC: climate change policy and theories of social change (2010) has already been cited 79 times. I used the fellowship to experiment with innovative methods of promoting social science. Unsolicited feedback on the Exhibition of Ideas and Extraordinary lecture (attended by 200, including members of the public) was extremely positive. For example: Fantastic event last Monday - you and the Party must be feeling proud of your efforts, and rightly so! ; I was sitting beside Moira Wallace (DECC s Perm Sec) at dinner last night... I told her about your BSA meeting ; Once again, many congratulations to you and the team on what was an intellectually stimulating as well as an aesthetically satisfying evening. I include here the primary colour coding and Matt's acrobatic skill as well as the Socratic method of your script. The film of the Extraordinary Lecture is on the web (over 8k visits) and is used in teaching in this country and abroad. Leadership: The fellowship working party process touched/shaped the academic lives of 21 early career researchers, non-academics and PhD students, including two PhDs linked to the fellowship. The BSA Climate Change Study Group, launched as part of the fellowship, now has 160 members and has run 6 events to date: A short course, based on the fellowship, has been delivered in Austria. Societal and policy: My research has influenced policy debate through evidence given in writing and in person to the House of Lords Behaviour Change enquiry and through face-toface meetings and non-academic presentations. My work is extensively cited in recent policy reports including: Darnton, A, et al. (2011). Habits, Routines and Sustainable Lifestyles: A summary report to DEFRA, and Chatterton, T. (2011) An Introduction to Thinking About Energy Behaviour : a multi-model approach, DECC. I am on DCLG s behaviour change group. Fellowship ideas have been used by WWF/Thames Water; fed into the Scottish Government, and been featured on radio programmes in the UK and Australia. b) Anticipated/Potential Future Impacts Please outline any anticipated or potential impacts (scientific or economic and societal) that you believe your project might have in future. [Max. 200 words] I expect that theories and concepts of practice will continue to influence academic and policy debate in relation to energy/consumption and climate change. There will be further publications, linked with output from the Sustainable Practices Research Group. For example, key ideas and materials from the fellowship are being used to inform a series of workshops (in progress) for the Scottish Government. Other forms of policy influence may develop in the future. I am, for instance, organising an event involving DECC/DEFRA and 6

7 the BSA climate change study group. The fellowship s longer term impact on those involved as workshop/symposium participants or as working party members is hard to determine. It might be useful to contact working party members a year or two on, to review the consequences of their involvement in terms of ideas, networking and capacity building. The two linked 1+3 PhD students will complete their Doctoral research on a) time and routine and b) seasonality/daylight. Both are making good progress. You will be asked to complete an ESRC Impact Report 12 months after the end date of your award. The Impact Report will ask for details of any impacts that have arisen since the completion of the End of Award Report. 4. Declarations Please ensure that sections A, B and C below are completed and signed by the appropriate individuals. The End of Award Report will not be accepted unless all sections are signed. Please note hard copies are not required; electronic signatures are accepted and should be used. A: To be completed by Grant Holder Please read the following statements. Tick one statement under ii) and iii), then sign with an electronic signature at the end of the section (this should be an image of your actual signature). i) The Project This Report is an accurate overview of the project, its findings and impacts. All coinvestigators named in the proposal to ESRC or appointed subsequently have seen and approved the Report. x ii) Submissions to the Research Outcomes System (ROS) Output and impact information has been submitted to the Research Outcomes System. Details of any future outputs and impacts will be submitted as soon as they become available. or This grant has not yet produced any outputs or impacts. Details of any future outputs and impacts will be submitted to the Research Outcomes System as soon as they become available. x iii) Submission of Datasets Datasets arising from this grant have been offered for deposit with the Economic and Social Data Service. or Datasets that were anticipated in the grant proposal have not been produced and the X 7

8 Economic and Social Data Service has been notified. or No datasets were proposed or produced from this grant.