Demanding Energy (eBook)

Allison Hui is Academic Fellow at the Department of Sociology and DEMAND Centre, Lancaster University, United Kingdom Rosie Day is Senior Lecturer in the Environment and Society at the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom Gordon Walker is Professor at the DEMAND Centre and Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, United Kingdom

Preface 5
Contents 7
List of Figures 10
List of Tables 12
1: Demanding Energy: An Introduction 13
1.1 Space and Demanding Energy 18
1.2 Time and Demanding Energy 23
1.3 Change and Demanding Energy 27
1.4 The Book Structure 31
Bibliography 33
Part 1: Making Connections 39
2: Demanding Connectivity, Demanding Charging: The Co-production of Mobile Communication Between Electrical and Digital Infrastructures 43
2.1 Introduction: Charging Smartphone Batteries, Powering the Internet 43
2.2 Background: The Energy Infrastructures of Mobile, Digital Connectivity 45
2.3 Expectations of Constant Connectivity and Public Charging: An Amtrak Rail Journey 48
2.4 Data Centers and the Electricity Underlying Digital Connectivity 54
2.5 Conclusion 57
Bibliography 60
3: Constructing Normality Through Material and Social Lock-In: The Dynamics of Energy Consumption Among Geneva’s More Affluent Households 63
3.1 Introduction 63
3.2 Concepts and Methodology 65
3.3 Research Findings 69
Material Lock-In: Appliances and Spaces 69
Social Lock-In: Social Acceptance and Pressures 74
Lock-In and the Un-locking of Normality Across Different Contexts and Cultures 76
3.4 Conclusions 78
Bibliography 81
4: Understanding Temporariness Beyond the Temporal: Greenfield and Urban Music Festivals and Their Energy Use Implications 84
4.1 Introduction 84
4.2 Organised Events and Temporariness 86
4.3 Characteristics of Temporariness 88
Temporal Features 88
Spatial Features 94
4.4 Conclusion 101
Bibliography 102
Part 2: Unpacking Meanings 105
5: Towards a ‘Meaning’-ful Analysis of the Temporalities of Mobility Practices: Implications for Sustainability 109
5.1 Introduction 109
5.2 Temporalities, Mobilities and Sustainability 110
5.3 Towards a ‘Meaning’-ful Temporal Analysis of Mobility Practices 114
Traditional Temporal Dichotomies of Mobility Practices: The Case of the Dominant Car System 114
Challenging Traditional Temporal Dichotomies of Mobilities: Intersections of Temporalities, Practices and Materialities 117
Intersections of Temporalities: Changing Perceptions of Speed 118
Intersections of Practices: Changing Perceptions of Duration 120
Intersections of Materialities: Changing Perceptions of Rhythmicity 122
5.4 Temporalising Mobility Practices: Implications for Sustainability 124
Bibliography 126
6: Being at Home Today: Inhabitance Practices and the Transformation and Blurring of French Domestic Living Spaces 130
6.1 Introduction 130
6.2 Inhabitance in Context and the Permeability of Spaces 132
6.3 Temporalities and the Multi-Functionality of Domestic Spaces 139
6.4 Conclusion 143
Bibliography 146
Part 3: Situating Agency 149
7: The Car as a Safety-Net: Narrative Accounts of the Role of Energy Intensive Transport in Conditions of Housing and Employment Uncertainty 153
7.1 Introduction 153
7.2 Choice and Context 156
7.3 The Study 158
7.4 Findings: Mobility Needs in the Contexts of Housing and Employment Uncertainty and Stability 160
Employment, Uncertainty and Mobility 160
Housing and Moving Home 162
Living Happily Without a Car 165
7.5 Uncertainty, Flexibility and Prospects for Reducing Travel by Car 167
Bibliography 170
8: The Tenuous and Complex Relationship Between Flexible Working Practices and Travel Demand Reduction 173
8.1 Introduction 173
8.2 The Practice of Work and Its Implications for Travel to Work 176
8.3 Practices Within the Household and Their Implications for Travel to Work 182
8.4 Conclusion 186
Bibliography 187
9: Leisure Travel and the Time of Later Life 190
9.1 Introduction 190
9.2 Study Design 193
9.3 Retirement as a Life Episode: Freedom and Self-Fulfilment 194
9.4 Physical Ageing Anticipated and Lived in Linear Time 197
9.5 Evolving Relationships and the Temporal (Re)distribution of Care 199
9.6 Discussion 202
Bibliography 204
Part 4: Tracing Trajectories 208
10: Changing Eating Practices in France and Great Britain: Evidence from Time-­Use Data and Implications for Direct Energy Demand 212
10.1 Introduction 212
Changes in Social Practices and Energy Demand 213
Eating Practices and Energy Consumption 214
10.2 Analysis of Changes in Eating and Cooking Practices 216
Data and Methods 216
Analytic Approach 222
Lunch: Diversity and Evolutions of Time, Preparation and Place 223
Dinner: Diversity and Evolutions of Time, Preparation and Place 229
10.3 Discussion 230
Evolution in the Structure and Timing of Meals 230
Cooking at Home 232
Outsourcing Energy 233
10.4 Conclusions and Future Directions 233
Bibliography 235
11: Paths, Projects and Careers of Domestic Practice: Exploring Dynamics of Demand over Biographical Time 239
11.1 Introduction 239
11.2 Considering Biography 242
Paths, Projects and Dialectics 242
Institutions, Lives and Domestic Practice 244
11.3 Researching Biographic Dynamics in Energy Demand 245
The Research Context 245
A Biographic, Practice-Orientated Methodology 246
11.4 Sample 247
11.5 Exploring the Intersections Between Lives, Institutions and Practice 248
Gender and Age Structured Practice Careers 248
11.6 Reproduction and Change in Routines and Practice 253
Billie’s Daily Path 253
Martha’s Daily Path 253
Biographic Pathways and Domestic Practice 254
11.7 Conclusion 258
Bibliography 260
12: Demanding Business Travel: The Evolution of the Timespaces of Business Practice 263
12.1 Introduction 263
Conceptualising Demand for Business Travel 265
The Case and Approach 266
Business Practices and Travel Demand 268
12.2 Historical Changes to the Interweaving of Timespaces 271
12.3 How Timespaces Are Interwoven Today 274
12.4 Conclusion 276
Bibliography 279
Part 5: Shifting Rhythms 284
13: Demand Side Flexibility and Responsiveness: Moving Demand in Time Through Technology 288
13.1 Introduction 288
13.2 Existing Approaches to Flexibility and Responsiveness and Their Limitations 290
13.3 Re-defining Flexibility and Responsiveness 292
13.4 Hotels as Sites of Demand Flexibility and Responsiveness 294
What Are the Typical Appliance and Service Loads of a Hotel? 295
13.5 Flexible Loads in Hotels 297
13.6 Responsive Loads in Hotels 300
To What Extent Can DSR Take Place Without Human Intervention? 302
13.7 Discussion and Conclusion 311
Bibliography 313
14: Reducing Demand for Energy in Hospitals: Opportunities for and Limits to Temporal Coordination 318
14.1 Introduction 318
14.2 What Do Hospitals Use Energy for? 320
14.3 How Hospital Life Is Organised (Temporally and in Other Ways) 323
14.4 Changing Material Arrangements in Pathology 327
14.5 Flexible Professional Boundaries in Breast Cancer Services 331
14.6 Fixed Temporal Arrangements in Radiology 335
14.7 Conclusion 338
Bibliography 340
Part 6: Researching Demand 343
15: Identifying Research Strategies and Methodological Priorities for the Study of Demanding Energy 344
15.1 Methodological Priorities and Their Research Design Implications 345
15.2 Approaching Cases and Sampling 351
15.3 Conclusion 355
Bibliography 356
Index 358