Sustainable Energy Consumption and Society: Personal, Technological, or Social Change?

List of Figures List of Tables List of AbbreviationsPrefaceAcknowledgments1: Sustainable Consumption And The Public's Room To Maneuver In Energy Use 1. Introduction2. The consumer society3. Consumption trajectories in Western Europe 4. North-South disparities, Northern consumerist models, and global resource constraints5. The evolving international discourse on sustainable consumption6. Consumption or production: Which is the better focus for addressing environmental problems?7. Room to maneuver in energy use 7.1 Northern society's discretion in energy use 7.2 Individuals' discretion 8. Research questions and challenges in this book 2: Targets Of Intervention For Sustainable Consumption 1. Introduction2. Efficiencies, patterns, and levels of consumption 2.1 Patterns of consumption 2.2 Efficiency and dematerialization 2.3 Levels of consumption 3. An expanded multi-disciplinary analysis of consumption's driving forces and possibilities for intervention 3.1 Consumption critiques 3.2 Psychological and behavioral treatments 3.3 Social treatments 3.4 Economic treatments 4. Conclusion: Policy syntheses and political implications 4.1 Altering consumption: top-down or bottom-up? 4.2 Political implications and alternatives3: Energy, Environment, And Society: Knowledge And Risk Communication1. Introduction2. Alternative research approaches and a frame for discussing knowledge in the context of discretionary and non-discretionary energy consumption2.1 Introduction: Two approaches and two constructs 2.2 Selected topics in the Energy-Revealing approach and actors' discretionary energy consumption2.3 The Social-Revealing approach and less discretionary influences on energy consumption 3. Energy and risk communication 3.1 Public communication 3.2 Risk communication 4. Final comments and furtherapplications4: Field Study With Computer-Aided Interviews1. Introduction 2. Experimental hypotheses and user questions3. Software development and modeling3.1 Original version of the Personal ECO2-Calculator3.2 Interview version of the Personal ECO2-Calculator4. Interviewee recruitment5. Interview description and guideline6. Data capture, storage, and analysis means7. Subjects' biographical profiles8. Results 8.1 Subject groups8.2 Terms and comments 8.3 Hypotheses A and B: Freedom of Choice and Capability 8.4 Hypotheses C, D, and E: Non-discretionary accounting, Perception of less discretionary influences, and Communicating about Energy Consumption 8.5 Hypothesis H: Separation of social from technological influences 8.6 Hypothesis G: Cross-temporal and cross-cultural comparisons 8.7 Consumer-citizen involvement in affecting less-discretionary forces 8.8 Energy Communication 8.9 Subjects' evaluation of the program and the interview session 5: Achievements, Open Questions, And Lessons Learned 1. Which questions have been answered? 1.1 Top-down or bottom-up?1.2 Metric for gauging experimental success1.3 Success in researching and applying domestic sustainable consumption 1.4 Pedagogical use and timing2. Lifestyle groups and differentiated approaches to sustainable consumption 3. Personal responsibility 4. Success in risk communication5. Suggestions for further research6. Some open questions 7. Divergence from the prevailing environmental frameworkReferences Index