What’s wrong with energy efficiency?
In technical terms, efficiency is a matter of delivering the same service but with fewer resources, such as energy, time or money. Given the challenges of climate change and the need to live more sustainably, this seems to be an eminently sensible goal. This Colloquium will take the opposite view, arguing that the pursuit of efficiency is positively counterproductive in that it sustains and normalises present standards of living and current levels of consumption. This has the invisible and perhaps unintended effect of reinforcing these expectations and building them into future systems of provision. The way out is to promote and encourage a more fundamental debate about what energy is for, and about how demand is made and met.
Speaker: Elizabeth Shove, distinguished professor of sociology at Lancaster University. She is known for her work on social practice theory, consumption and demand, and she participates in the activities of the Center for Practice Theory at Lancaster. Between 2013 and 2019, she was director of the DEMAND Centre. Her most recent book, "Connecting Practices: Large Topics in Society and Social Theory," shows the contribution of practice theory to large issues such as world trade, obesity-related trends and more. Elizabeth is now busy reflecting on the theory of practices and the lives of bacteria, fungi and viruses.
Introduction: Alvise Matozzi (Lecturer in Social Studies of Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino)