Comfort in a Lower Carbon Society

Front Cover
Elizabeth Shove, Heather Chappells, Loren Lutzenhiser
Routledge, Sep 13, 2013 - Architecture - 136 pages

Current expectations and standards of comfort are almost certainly unsustainable and new methods and ideas will be required if there is to be any prospect of a significantly lower carbon society. This collection reassesses relationships between people and the multitude of environments they inhabit in the context of increasing carbon intensities of everyday life. In this bold and unconventional volume historians, sociologists, environmentalists, geographers, and cultural theorists provoke and stimulate debate about the future of comfort in a lower carbon society. These contributions are then subject to critical commentary from a range of academic and policy perspectives. The result is a book that promotes academic and policy discussion of the environmental consequences of indoor climate change around the world, and that offers new perspectives and strategies for moving towards a lower carbon future.

This book was published as a special issue of Building Research & Information.

 

Contents

Comfort in a Lower Carbon Society
1958
US consumers and the cast iron stove
a sociotechnical research agenda
Understanding heat wave vulnerability in nursing and residential homes
comfort and the California garden
the impact of demandmanagement strategies
New standards for comfort and energy use in buildings
Commentaries
Arc Comfort expectations of building occupants too high?
Studying thermal comfort in context
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About the author (2013)

Elizabeth Shove is professor of Sociology at Lancaster University. She has written widely on theories of practice, technology, consumption, environment and everyday life. She is co editor (with Frank Trentmann and Rick Wilk) of Time, Consumption and Everyday Life: Practices, materiality and culture (Berg, forthcoming 2009).

Heather Chappells is honorary research fellow in Geography at Lancaster University. She has undertaken several projects examining the social, institutional and cultural dimensions of sustainable consumption, provision and practices in the UK energy and water sectors - including Future Comforts: Reconditioning indoor environments with Elizabeth Shove (ESRC, 2003-2004).

Loren Lutzenhiser is Professor of Urban Studies and Planning at Portland State University. His research focuses on the environmental impacts of socio-technical systems, particularly how urban energy and resource use is related to global environmental change.