“It’s an old house and that’s how it works”: Living sufficiently well in inefficient homes

Roberts, Erin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4818-2926 and Henwood, Karen ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4631-5468 2019. “It’s an old house and that’s how it works”: Living sufficiently well in inefficient homes. Housing, Theory and Society 36 (4) , pp. 469-488. 10.1080/14036096.2019.1568296

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Abstract

In the United Kingdom, the domestic sector is a major contributor of national carbon emissions. Improving the energy efficiency of the existing stock, particularly the oldest and least efficient homes, is therefore of utmost importance if ambitious carbon reduction targets are to be met. Analyzing the rich, narrative data of households living in old, hard-to-treat homes, this paper produces novel insights into the ways in which domestic thermal comfort practices are shaped by meaningful relationships, intimately bound to identificatory positions, that are deeply connected to these valued domestic environments. Findings concern how households renegotiate widely accepted understandings of thermal comfort to better fit with the materiality of their old homes by constructing for themselves meaningful ‘moral’ identities that focus on living sufficiently well. This relational understanding of domestic energy consumption highlights how materiality, practices and moral narratives are produced and reproduced dynamically over time.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
ISSN:	1403-6096
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	11 January 2019
Date of Acceptance:	7 January 2019
Last Modified:	07 Nov 2024 00:15
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/118300

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