Salvador García
3 Resultados y conclusiones
Flying was another topic that was broached by each household member in their discussions of their efforts to reduce their carbon emissions. After spending some time
“tinkering” with carbon footprint calculators, Ian came to the conclusion that replacing inefficient domestic appliances would not drastically reduce their footprint; instead he states that the family “shouldn’t be travelling by airplane full stop”. Despite his love of travelling, Ian believes that it is a problematic practice, and he now gives himself a “very hard time about flying anywhere” and tries not to do it. This was a view that was also shared by Isabel and Lowri, who had decided that she “probably won’t fly any more”.
During the first interview with Lowri however, it quickly became evident that while the family agreed that their air travel should be reduced, they differed in practice;
Lowri Mum and Dad do take a long trip every couple of years -and actually it’s gone down a great deal- but, they’ll go to Australia or they’re going to Africa or they went to the Galapagos -and I can totally see why they do it- ‘cause when I went travelling it [was] like one of the most memorable times of my life and (...) I dunno (...) I don’t understand why -I don’t judge them at all because I know they’re trying their best and everyone just has a different threshold of what they’re prepared to sacrifice or perceive as a sacrifice- so I don’t judge them for it, but I find it interesting (...) why we share the same view but they feel that that’s something they’re prepared to do and I don’t [...]
Evident in the above extract are tensions between culturally valued holiday practices, such as travelling to exotic locations, and a pro-environmental self-identity. Here, the cultural value of ‘omnivorousness’ (Peterson & Kern, 1996), that is, having openness to appreciating or experiencing everything, might be linked to a strong desire to travel, to visit, experience and accumulate knowledge of new and unfamiliar places and cultures.
This wanderlust is hardly a new phenomenon, as O’Reilly likens the desire to seek out the novel to the Grand Tours of the 17th and 18th centuries, ‘particularly [in] its focus on gaining an education’ (2006; 1004). According to Randles and Mander (2009), like the
society is a means of accumulating social and cultural capital, and is an activity that is
‘enjoyed disproportionately by higher income and higher social class groups’. (p.111).
Indeed, with higher levels of disposable income and the proliferation of low-cost airlines during the late twentieth century, long-distance independent travel has become a commonly accepted rite of passage for young middle-class people in particular. According to O’Reilly, these experiences are deemed meaningful, as they are considered to be both educational and character forming, making for a cultured individual with a strong sense of self and identity (2006; 1004), and marking the transition from adolescence to adulthood.
Whilst travelling for Lowri was “one of the most memorable times in my life”, it seems that her orientations have changed since her return, as for her, travelling is now more strongly associated with environmental degradation (a finding similar to that of Carfagna et al., 2014). However, Lowri’s experiences are in direct contrast to her parents’, as they like many of their generation, prioritised work and family responsibilities during their youth, as Isabel noted during a different discussion that she and Ian “were quite poor and had lots of children” when they were young. Now that they are both semi-retired, the couple have the time and the financial resources to allow them to travel to exotic destinations, something which their daughter had the privilege of doing earlier in her life.
While their desire to fly is a source of guilt and anxiety for Ian and Isabel, particularly given their identities as environmentalists, it does not seem to stop them from flying entirely. This finding draws parallels with the work of Barr and colleagues (2010), who also found that even those that identify as committed environmentalists, may not be willing to give up flying, as it would ‘impinge on their lifestyle choices regarding their travel pursuits’ (p. 478). Isabel and Ian manage these tensions by using alternatives to flying, such as trains, to get to closer destinations, whilst reducing the frequency of holidays to more exotic locations. Managing the tensions between the desire to travel and their environmental commitments has, however, become even more difficult for the family as of late, as one of Lowri’s siblings emigrated to Australia in 2012.
Lowri in particular describes her decision to “probably” not fly again as a difficult one, and likens it to having to “choose between your family and your ethics”. When discussing the difficulties of practicing a sustainable lifestyle during the family interview, Isabel also
reflected on her frustration in trying to reconcile the need to reduce her air travel with wanting to see her children;
Isabel One thing that makes me fed up is when I make a rule, like we’re gonna cut down on flying, and then I end up flying -and I’m gonna be flying again this year- which I keep saying will be one of the last times I fly, but actually with our son in Australia and a daughter possibly moving to New Zealand I know I’m going to do more flying.
Clearly a discrepancy lies between visiting distant loved ones and commitment to environmentalism, which makes for a highly emotive topic of discussion. Drawing similarities with the findings of Randles and Mander (2009), it seems that for Isabel at least, putting a halt on journeys to visit her children abroad is non-negotiable.
5. Reflections
This chapter set out to explore the ways in which household arrangements, identities and interactions are implicated in the co-ordination of everyday energy consuming practices.
In order to do so, three family case studies were presented in order to illustrate the relational messiness inherent within the social structure of the family. I begin the discussion with the notion of family identity, which played a key role in structuring the three family narratives.
It was difficult to ascertain whether or not the Evans family had a cohesive shared identity, but they did share a distinct set of consumption values, such as their mutual appreciation for ICT. High levels of independence were integral to the enactment of family in the Evans household, as there was little to no talk of ‘family time’ within Ffion’s narrative.
Unlike the Evans family, the Thomases had a strong and cohesive sense of a family identity that centred on a theology that encourages respect for the planet, and restraint in using its resources. One of the key tenets of their theology was related to the importance of a formalised ‘family time’, which discourages individualised consumption. Like the Thomases, the Becketts also had a cohesive shared identity that centred on their mutual interests in the environment and in social justice. Their household character lies somewhere between the characters of the Evans and Thomas families, as the Becketts
value elements of both mutuality and independence, owing largely to their composition as an extended family-household.
Through these households’ narratives it is possible to see complex interconnections between personal and shared identities, wider moralizing discourses and societal norms, which shift along the family life cycle. For example, each household narrative is shaped by discourses regarding ‘good parenting’ and idealised notions of family life (albeit in very different ways), which influence the ways in which the households are organised and which have difficult implications in terms of energy demand.
Discourses of intensive parenting (Shirani, Henwood & Coltart, 2011) shape Ffion’s as well as Richard and Grace’s accounts. For Ffion, this meant providing her son with the latest ICTs so that (i) he could develop his computing skills for educational purposes, and (ii) he would not be stigmatised by his peers. For Richard and Grace however, this meant keeping a ‘traditional’ household in which ICTs are collectively shared and policed, and which prioritises ‘family time’ over the virtual world. Despite the shared values within each family however, tensions exist between these normative discourses and personal identity projects of each member of the household. By providing her son with a multimedia bedroom, she had unintentionally made it more difficult to exercise control over what she deemed to be his excessive use of ICT. Likewise, Grace experienced tensions between her identity as a caregiver and her identity as a household manager, which led her to engage in practices that did not match her understanding of ‘good parenting’.
Tensions also exist for children/young people within these households. Despite not being able to hear Siôn’s perspective, it could be argued that his practices, like those of Delyth, Alex and Lisa Thomas, are influenced by peers as much as they have been influenced by their parents. The normative discourses that influence these young people however, are often at odds with those that influence their parents, creating tensions between personal and shared identity projects. A clear example of this would be in the Thomas children’s enjoyment of using ICT, to stay in touch with their friends and for their leisure, but also feel guilty about using ‘so much’ of it.
are a family unit, as an adult who has lived independently of her parents, Lowri’s presence in the Beckett home is transitional. Despite not being a ‘traditional nuclear family’, their account too, has been shaped by normative discourses of parenting and idealised family life. For Ian and Isabel, this meant having the opportunity to welcome their adult daughter back into their home (known in popular discourses as ‘boomeranging’), in order to support her until she found a place for her own. For Lowri however, returning to the parental home created a tension between the independence of emerging adulthood and the mutuality of living with one’s parents (albeit temporarily), which resulted in her distancing herself from household decision-making. Despite demonstrating a cohesive shared identity centred around mutual interests, family members can also demonstrate different interpretations of the same consumption practices, as illustrated by Isabel and Lowri’s disagreements about laundering and flying for example (see also Linnet, 2009).
Drawing upon a biographical lens to analyse the data presented in this chapter has brought into view the means by which meaningful identities are formed. Rather than being fixed or static, our personal and collective identities are continuously in the making; emerging through relationships with others in and through time (see Henwood & Shirani, 2012), which have a bearing on the practices that individuals and households engage in. In highlighting the relational messiness inherent in everyday energy consumption at the household level, this chapter has demonstrated that the changing engrained practices may be less straightforward than is currently envisaged by demand-side policies. Policy-makers therefore need to be sensitive to the complex web of relationships that underpin people’s engagements in certain practices.