Apologies for cross-posting. Please find below the first call for papers for a session organised for the RGS-IBG Annual Conference, London 31 Aug - 2 Sept 2011
Session organisers: Paul Barratt, Sally Eden and David Gibbs (University of Hull)
Sponsored by the Planning and Environment Research Group (PERG)
Climate change policies in the UK and internationally are pushing individuals at home and at work to move to low carbon practices. But how can such change be understood, operationalised and normalised within existing habits and infrastructures? This session will focus upon the everyday practices in households and in businesses and consider the potentials and problems in shifting these towards a low carbon ideal. Rather than focusing upon governance and higher-level policy, the session will engage with the multiple knowledge-practices at work in making sense of carbon emissions and attempting to reduce them through reshaping quotidian behaviours and investing in, or becoming (un)consciously subsumed by (mundane) carbon saving technologies. Such activities are subject to the barriers and contestations posed by the normal routines and the economic aspirations of households and business that are unevenly equipped with environmental awareness, ethics and aspirations. Questions that papers might address are:
• How do people measure/monitor their carbon emissions, to render the invisible manageable? What knowledge-practices are involved and how do these differ for different times/spaces, e.g. work versus home?
• What tools are available to help people learn about low carbon living and working – e.g. formal education, interactive events, product labelling, online carbon calculators – and how well do they relate to people’s everyday lives (at home, at work, at play)?
• What do people understand by terms such as ‘low carbon’ and ‘carbon neutral’ and how far do they relate to everyday practice in households and businesses?
• How can we theorise changes to low carbon living and working? How useful are STS concepts such as transition management, strategic niches and the redistribution of technological actors in understanding and explaining the shift to low carbon practices?
• What are the problems/barriers involved in raising awareness of carbon emissions and low carbon living and working? How far does low carbon living represent a fundamental shift in business and individual practices?
• How is low carbon living/working manifested differently in particular places/spaces e.g. eco-towns, sustainable communities, low carbon towns, green businesses and eco-industrial parks. How can these be used to promote low carbon practices elsewhere?
• How are low carbon practices developed in business at different scales of operations, from SMEs to MNCs? What are the trade-offs that must be negotiated in switching to low carbon practices and how are these contested within organisations?
• Is there evidence that national/local government initiatives have successfully encouraged low carbon living and working? What do the third sector and the private sector have to offer, in addition to the work of government and local councils?
Abstracts of 250 words (maximum) should be submitted to Paul Barratt ([log in to unmask]) and Sally Eden ([log in to unmask]) by the 11th February 2011.
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Paul Barratt
Research Associate
Centre for Low Carbon Futures
Department of Geography
University of Hull
Kingston Upon Hull
East Yorkshire
HU6 7RX
Phone
Office 01482 465421
Mobile 07814711702
Email
[log in to unmask]
http://www.lowcarbonfutures.org/projects/low-carbon-supply-chains
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