Davis, M. orcid.org/0000-0001-5886-4790, Middlemiss, L. orcid.org/0000-0001-5185-2033, Hall, S. orcid.org/0000-0002-1558-7081 et al. (7 more authors) (2024) Towards a Relational Sociology of Retrofit. Sociology. ISSN 0038-0385
Abstract
Decarbonisation of residential buildings (‘retrofit’) is vital if nations are to meet declared net zero targets. This challenge is especially acute in the UK, which has some of the least energy efficient homes in Europe. Yet, to date, sociology has paid relatively little attention either to the urgency of this challenge or to its potential solutions. This article uses concepts from relational sociology to propose a complete reframing of the retrofit challenge and concludes by offering suggestions to improve energy policy design and incentives. It opens new avenues for sociologically driven research into how and why people ‘retrofit’ their homes, highlighting dynamics of trust, power and emotion as meaningful barriers to retrofit at scale. We conclude that the multiple stakeholders seeking to boost energy efficiency interventions in homes should focus less upon economic incentives for ‘rational actors’ and more upon reducing, facilitating and smoothing the ‘relational work’ needed to deliver retrofit.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2024.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | climate change, decarbonisation, emotion, home, net zero, relational sociology, relational work, retrofit, trust |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Sociology and Social Policy (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) 557117/180181 UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) 180181 557124 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 25 Nov 2024 11:48 |
Last Modified: | 25 Nov 2024 11:48 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/00380385241298177 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:219970 |
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