2.1 How does Living in a ‘Deep Rural’ Locality Shape the Performance of Energy Consuming Practices?
This research question was primarily addressed in the first empirical chapter (chapter four), which considers the ways in which the physical context of one’s everyday life is interpreted and navigated on a daily basis. Perhaps unsurprisingly structural constraints in terms of the lack of public transport and the limited distribution of the gas network52 were discussed at great length by participants, which informed the organisation of the chapter.
For most households in this study, the distances between places of residence and places of work, retail and leisure necessitated a great deal of everyday mobility. Being on the move in the countryside, however, was considered to be a difficult task without the aid of a car, given that for the majority of participants, various commitments within different life domains (i.e. work, school, leisure and home life) could not be met with the limited provision of reliable public transport at their disposal. It was shown that the car as a technology (material) was valued by participants, not only for its utility, but also for the freedom that driving a car entails, which has, as Rhian pointed out, become “ingrained in the [local] psyche”.
Despite the benefits that car ownership provided (i.e. the opportunity to maximise economic opportunities - getting to work) however, participants recognised that their mobile lifestyles were not only environmentally detrimental, but were, in many ways, personally detrimental too. From the narratives presented in this chapter, one gets the sense that distance necessitates both time and money to traverse, resulting in less time to spend with family (social disadvantage), and a greater proportion of wages being dedicated to purchasing fuel (financial disadvantage). This is not to say that the participants of this study were passive victims. While the structures that constrained their actions could not be changed, participants exercised agency in the ways in which they managed the tensions between the need to be mobile and the temporal demands of their various social commitments. Strategies such as trip-chaining, trip synchronisation and digital mobilities
were used by participants in order to save money or save time (see also Milbourne &
Kitchen, 2014).
In the latter half of chapter four, I moved on to discuss households that were off the gas grid, and what this meant in terms of everyday practice. The narratives presented in this subsection highlighted the vulnerability of off-grid households to fuel prices in particular – the likes of which are heavily dependent on the volatile crude oil market. However, most of the off-grid households had multiple heating systems that operated on different fuels, providing households with options that promote flexibility, and in the case of those with less financial means, resilience (see also Wrapson & Devine-Wright, 2014).
Participants practiced a range of different strategies to minimise money spent, which involved; knowing when it’s “cold enough” (i.e. seasonally appropriate) to turn the central heating on and relying on the fireplace/ log burner until then; and being resourceful – in terms of collecting firewood for example – which was “part of the [local] culture”
according to some.
An unexpected finding connected to the notion of vulnerability relates to the narrative of a single person, Ffion, who relayed to me her personal experiences of fuel theft in her locality. While she was not a victim of the crime herself, many people in her community – friends, neighbours, and even employers – had been. The experience had clearly had an effect on Ffion, as the constant fear of having her fuel stolen heightened her sense of vulnerability.
A final insight developed in this chapter related to two households in particular, the Gwilyms and the Dreyers, whose narratives illustrated that in addition to wider infrastructural constraints, everyday heating practices were largely dependent on the
‘character’ of the building itself, particularly in relation to its perceived ‘needs’. Both households’ understanding of the ‘character’ of their homes and the ‘feel’ of the spaces within them, were made in relation to the flows of air and temperature in and around the building. While both households lived in similar properties however, their interpretations of these flows, and thus their ways of managing their own thermal comfort were very different. For example, for the Gwilyms, gusts of cold air were both unwelcome and unwelcoming, whilst for the Dreyers it was felt to be healthy and normal. These findings reaffirm Pink and Leder-Mackley’s (2016) assertion that practices should not be thought
as unified entities, but instead, should be viewed as dispersed and dependent upon the unique and shifting configuration of domestic environments (p.237).
2.2 In What Ways do Energy Practices Develop and Change in Place and through Time?
This research question was addressed in chapter five, which set out to examine the situated yet ever shifting patterns of energy demand across the life-course by using a biographical lens (Butler et al., 2014). The chapter drew upon the ‘case biographies’ of four individuals, each at a different stage within the life-course, to illustrate the ways in which past experiences and future expectations in terms of life-course transitions play a significant role in shaping energy consumption patterns in the present. The narratives demonstrated that the changing circumstances brought on by life-course transitions, expected or otherwise, often involved tensions between the values around which meaningful identities are built, and future aspirations are forged. Eleri the shrewd investor, Alys the home-bird, ever-resilient Ceris, and ethical Gwen, each were able to acknowledge and reflexively engage with these tensions, around which they told their stories.
Each of their narratives were tales of adaptation to ever changing circumstances, whether in terms of learning to economise and live within one’s means (Eleri and Ceris), or learning to balance commitments within different life domains (Alys and Gwen).
Adapting to new circumstances by drawing on a repertoire of new as well as old practices could be likened to exercising agency in the face of change, as participants attempt to maintain their sense of who they are in the wake of transitions.
These finding resonate in part with the contention that transitions are moments in which people are likely to experience changing circumstances that prompt them to reflect on the types of lifestyle that they would like to have (Thompson et al., 2011). Transitions however, do not occur as neatly bounded occurrences, but instead, are demonstrated by the case biographies to be interlinked over time. This finding supports those of Burningham and colleagues (2014), who argue that rather than being static ‘moments’ of change, transitions are in fact on-going and fluid, as practices continue to shift and change
2.3 How are Energy Practices Made Meaningful by Those That Perform Them?
This research question was addressed in chapter six, which details narratives of ‘what matter’ to people as they sought to explain the underlying logic of why they consume energy in the ways that they do. By investigating narratives of everyday practice, I was able to shed light on how emotional investments in everyday practices were textured through biographical experience and relationships with significant others.
What immediately became clear over the course of the analysis was that when people talked about what matters to them, they did so by talking about their relationships with other people - particularly family and friends, but also neighbours and colleagues. Indeed, there was a relational dimension present within the narratives of each and every participant. Moral judgements of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ energy practices for example were textured through biographical experiences and memories that were shared with or shaped by significant others. Participants most often referred to memories of parental ways of doing as they sought to explain their own ‘ethic of consumption’ (Hall, 2015).
The most widely used ethic of consumption related to the notions of thrift, frugality and an aversion to waste. These notions were often associated with the practices of earlier generations (i.e. parents and grandparents) and were generally regarded in a positive manner. Comparisons were often drawn between the care-filled and effortful (i.e. good) practices of the past and what was perceived as the excessive and wasteful (i.e. bad) actions of the present. For the exemplars featured in this chapter, engaging in practices that required a greater level of physical and mental exertion imbued them with a sense of familial continuity with past generations, as well as a sense of satisfaction and self-efficacy in the face of societal transformations. Narratives of what matters to people thus extend to encompass not only relationships with significant others but also relationships with practices that allow them to exert agency and independence in a changing world.
Rather paradoxically however, when entertaining guests, it seems that this positive valuation of frugality and thrift was turned on its head, as evidenced in Eleri’s discussion of heating practices, and Eluned and Glyn’s discussion of lighting practices. This
demonstrates that the explanatory logic behind certain practices is situated, and dependent upon the social relations of that particular point in space and time. Indeed, this was also evident in Ffion and Dylan’s respective discussions of their use of the fireplace and radio, in which excessive or wasteful practices (i.e. keeping the radio on all night or keeping a fire going) were reformulated as necessary in the absence of significant others.
Dylan’s narrative in particular highlights the role that memories and experiences play in the accomplishment of subjectively meaningful practices. As such, it was demonstrated that practices and the materials that they depend on are valued not only for their practical use, but also for their symbolic value in relation to individual identities and situated practices of home making.
2.4 To What Extent are Individual Identities and Household Arrangements Implicated in the Performance of Everyday Energy Practices?
This research question was addressed in the final empirical chapter (chapter seven), which draws on the collective narratives of three very different family households in order to explore how energy practices are contingent upon dynamic familial processes at different stages of the family life-course.
Whether or not each of the families explicitly stated that they had cohesive identity, it became clear over the course of the analysis that the differing relational styles of each household played a significant part in shaping their everyday practices. Relational styles were shaped on the one hand by personal values, and on the other, by wider moralizing discourses and societal norms regarding idealised family life. High levels of independence, for example, were integral to the enactment of family in the Evans household, which was reflected in a media-rich home environment and the family’s personalised and dispersed media practices (see also Gram-Hanssen, 2005; Livingstone, 2007). In contrast, the Thomas household had a strong and cohesive identity that centred on mutuality, which was shaped by a theology that values family time above material wants. Finally, and despite having a unified identity centring on shared interests in the environment and in social justice, the Beckett household’s relational style was somewhat in-between mutuality and
independence, which I argue, reflects the household’s more advanced stage in the family life-cycle.
Regardless of whether their relational style was based on mutuality or independence, each of the household narratives contained within them tensions between collective and personal values. For example, in the Evans household, Ffion provided her son with the latest media devices so that; (a) he would develop the skills to use them; (b) so that his peers would not mock him; and (c) so that her own freedom and choice to use various media devices would not be restricted. In providing her son with a media-rich bedroom however, Ffion found it more difficult to exercise her parental authority when it came to her son’s media practices. On a similar note, in the Thomas household, Grace’s narrative contained within it tensions between her roles as a caregiver and household manager that compelled her to engage in practices (i.e. using the television as a babysitter) that did not match her values regarding quality time and her understanding of ‘good’ parenting. In the Beckett household, tensions existed for Ian, Isabel and Lowri, as they had to manage tensions between their desires to travel and to visit far-away family on the one hand, and their environmental commitments on the other.