Energy biographies: narrative genres, lifecourse transitions and practice change

Christopher Groves (Cardiff), Karen Henwood (Cardiff), Fiona Shirani (Cardiff), Catherine Butler (Exeter), Karen Parkhill (York), Nick Pidgeon (Cardiff)

www.energybiographies.org

Energy Biographies project (2011-present)

• QLL biographical interviews▫ Four sites: Cardiff (Ely,

Peterston), Lammas, Royal Free Hospital (RFH, London)

▫ 3 longitudinal interviews (original group of 74 in first round narrowed down to 36 for rounds 2 & 3)

▫ 6 months between interviews

Lammas, West Wales

Royal Free Hospital,

LondonPeterston, Cardiff

Ely, Cardiff

Stories of transition•Interviews elicited stories of transition

▫E.g. house moves, going to university, job change, retirement, taking in elderly relatives…

•…and the implications of such changes for how energy use changes in turn

•Longitudinal approach tracks changes in practices over time

•Explores role of narratives in making sense of change

Research Context• History of energy and behaviour

change agendas• Encouraging individual

reflexivity towards social practices that consume electricity & gas (heating, lighting, entertainment)▫ Information▫ Incentives▫ Action

• Individuals as agents of change: ‘resource men’ (Strengers, 2013)

Salford Council

campaign (UK,

2013)

Vanderbilt Universitycampaign

(USA, 2015)

Behaviour change: a dominant policy and research narrative

• Instance of shared narrative genre (Mulvey 1987): reflexive progress

• Dominant story structure for understanding social change: control over contingency

• Identifies particular subjects (consumers, technological experts) as agents of change

• Lifecourse transitions as ‘decisive moments’ that offer opportunities to promote change

Less ordered state

Agency

More ordered state

Wasteful consumption

Technological innovation + individual reflexivity =

behaviour change

Efficient consumption/lower

costs

Transitions as imperilling identity• To what extent do lifecourse transitions present

‘opportunities’?• Narratives of transition are encountered in many

forms, not just progressive• Unsuccessful transitions: examples from sociology

of health and medicine▫ Treatment narratives (Frank, 1995)▫ Unsuccessful IVF (Throsby, 2002)▫ Experiences of stillbirth (Layne, 2000)

• Documenting experiences that fall outside dominant progress storylines that narrate expectations of control over contingency

• A different genre: threats to identity

Transitions as liminal• Victor Turner (1974):

anthropological investigation of narratives of lifecourse transition: ‘liminal’ vs ‘liminoid’

• Properly liminal transitions: ways of dealing with shared crises of meaning tied to identity-threat, e.g. child-adult, marriage, childbirth, death

Preliminal

• Starting identity, role

Liminal

• Symbolic/physical segregation from community

Liminality: ‘traditional’ societies

• Characterise ‘traditional’ societies

• Control over contingency/ taming future through shared rituals that transition individuals between categories of identity

Preliminal

• Starting identity, role

Liminal

• Reflexive/individualised rituals of change

Liminoid narratives of transition• ‘Post-traditional’

societies• Individual or

collective reflexivity towards tradition/shared ritual

‘Liminoid’ liminality: ‘post-traditional’ societies

• Initiation into newly-created identity

• Re-integration may involve creating new shared or individual identities

• Valorizes individualised control of contingency

Distinct ways of dealing with contingency • Turner’s distinction: two kinds of transition

narrative1. Identification with shared integrative rituals2. Reflexive construction of individual/shared

rituals• Contingency interpreted as:

1. Inescapable, universal yet tameable2. Singular, masterable/controllable

• Recall earlier examples of unsuccessful lifecourse transition narratives and threats to identity

• Are liminoid narratives (in which progress and individual agency are valorized) subject to specific vulnerabilities?

Example: ‘Lucy’ (Peterston)• The ‘resource (wo)man’

• The ‘good host’

“I don’t think I really feel guilty I just think I’m aware and it does make me cross when like Sean especially just is deliberately almost you know wasting it […]”

“[…] we have a log fire and they’re probably super inefficient aren’t they in heating a room? […] we’ve put massive radiators in our new house cos its really Victorian, tall ceilings, and so we just don’t need a wood burner to be on at any point but actually it’ll sort of make the room […].”

“Cos we love being outside, we just love that you can you know go, we were sitting out there one evening … it was like midnight and you could have a drink outside still and it’s so lovely here cos it’s so quiet and everything so but you wouldn’t have been able to do it without that […]. So that’s our kind of, we know it’s really bad but we’re still going to use it.”

‘I never really wanted to waste money, energy but now I think it’s just, when I got my last energy bill, I couldn't believe it.’

Lucy’s story•Discrepancy between narrative and

experience•Lucy’s house move: liminoid transition

(better quality of life)•Re-creation of identity: host for friends in

rural setting, focus on creating perfect rural home

•Conflict between two liminoid narrativesPreliminal

• Mother• ‘Resource

woman’

Liminal

• Reflexive/ individualised rituals of change

• Friendships in question

Lucy’s story• Encounter with contingency in

the form of identity conflict• Reflexive liminoid narrative of

change (‘better quality of life’) cannot resolve clash between itself and other liminoid narratives▫ ‘Resource woman’ (rational

manager) vs ‘good host’ (caring for attachments)

• New practices and ‘rituals’ embody rather than resolve conflict

• Lucy manages this conflict in the course of her narrative through disavowal

“I never really wanted to waste money, energy but now I think it’s just, when I got my last energy bill, I couldn't believe it”

“we know it’s really bad but we’re still going to use it.”

Implications: contingency and ‘cultural fixes’

• From the data: widespread pattern▫ framing of change as liminoid/

progressive▫ In conflict with experiences

associated with lifecourse transition that undermine this script

• Qualitative longitudinal research suggests lifecourse transitions not unambiguous opportunities to promote further change

• Further research agenda : are cultural resources available to enable integration of problematic experiences of contingency?

• E.g. ‘Carbon Conversations’

“I argue that in each of the cases described below, a cultural fix is both possible and desirable. Such a fix would involve enriching our discursive repertoire by lifting taboos and expanding the range of acceptable story lines for individual lives. It would also entail creating supportive rituals for these unfortunate events.”

Layne, L. L. (2000). "The Cultural Fix: An Anthropological Contribution to Science and Technology Studies." Science, Technology &

Human Values 25(4): 492-519.

Thank you Energybiographies.org

Other team Members: Professor Karen Henwood, Professor Nick Pidgeon& Dr Fiona Shirani (Cardiff), Dr Karen Parkhill (now York)Dr Catherine Butler (now Exeter)