10 FRoM EFFICIENCY To SUFFICIENCY: INSIGHTS …
113
The utility companies are also actively engaged in campaigns, initiatives,
and R&D to decrease energy usage, often collaborating with community
associations or researchers towards this aim. A particularity of the Swiss
case is indeed the important role of academics and research teams when
it comes to implementing and designing energy initiatives, or re-thinking our relationship to energy and absolute reductions in innovative
ways. This is due to an ambitious national research policy that supported
research programmes on energy issues in the past decade, with a specific
focus on socio-economic approaches to energy, in addition to technical
developments. This lesson from Switzerland could inform European policy towards further supporting research-action initiatives drawing from
social sciences and the humanities. Another lesson learned from the Swiss
SECIs to inform European policy is to account for coherence: much like
the Pumpipumpe example given above, the design and functioning of any
such initiatives should be coherent. If less energy usage is an aim, more
initiatives need to focus on sufficiency, rather than efficiency—and should
be designed accordingly.
referenCes
Dobigny, L. (2016). Quand l’énergie change de mains. Socio-anthropologie
de l’autonomie énergétique locale au moyen d’énergies renouvelables en
Allemagne, Autriche et France (Thèse de Sociologie). Université Paris 1
Panthéon-Sorbonne.
Dobigny, L. (2017). What renewable energy change? The role of technical systems in
energy uses and representations. 13th Conference of the European Sociological
Association (ESA), Athens, Greece, 29 August–1 September.
Gram-Hanssen, K., & Georg, S. (2017). Energy performance gaps: Promises,
people, practices. Building Research & Information, 46(1), 1–9.
Jensen, C. L., Goggins, G., Fahy, F., Grealis, E., Vadovics, E., Genus, A., et al.
(2018). Towards a practice-theoretical classification of sustainable energy
consumption initiatives: Insights from social scientific energy research in 30
European countries. Energy Research & Social Science, 45, 297–306.
Sahakian, M. (2017). Toward a more solidaristic sharing economy: Examples
from Switzerland. In M. J. Cohen, H. S. Brown, & P. J. Vergragt (Eds.),
Social change and the coming of post-consumer society: Theoretical advances and
policy implications. oxon and New York: Routledge.
Sahakian, M., & Bertho, B. (2018). L’électricité au quotidien: le rôle des normes
sociales pour la transition énergétique suisse. Genève, Suisse, Fonds national
113
The utility companies are also actively engaged in campaigns, initiatives,
and R&D to decrease energy usage, often collaborating with community
associations or researchers towards this aim. A particularity of the Swiss
case is indeed the important role of academics and research teams when
it comes to implementing and designing energy initiatives, or re-thinking our relationship to energy and absolute reductions in innovative
ways. This is due to an ambitious national research policy that supported
research programmes on energy issues in the past decade, with a specific
focus on socio-economic approaches to energy, in addition to technical
developments. This lesson from Switzerland could inform European policy towards further supporting research-action initiatives drawing from
social sciences and the humanities. Another lesson learned from the Swiss
SECIs to inform European policy is to account for coherence: much like
the Pumpipumpe example given above, the design and functioning of any
such initiatives should be coherent. If less energy usage is an aim, more
initiatives need to focus on sufficiency, rather than efficiency—and should
be designed accordingly.
referenCes
Dobigny, L. (2016). Quand l’énergie change de mains. Socio-anthropologie
de l’autonomie énergétique locale au moyen d’énergies renouvelables en
Allemagne, Autriche et France (Thèse de Sociologie). Université Paris 1
Panthéon-Sorbonne.
Dobigny, L. (2017). What renewable energy change? The role of technical systems in
energy uses and representations. 13th Conference of the European Sociological
Association (ESA), Athens, Greece, 29 August–1 September.
Gram-Hanssen, K., & Georg, S. (2017). Energy performance gaps: Promises,
people, practices. Building Research & Information, 46(1), 1–9.
Jensen, C. L., Goggins, G., Fahy, F., Grealis, E., Vadovics, E., Genus, A., et al.
(2018). Towards a practice-theoretical classification of sustainable energy
consumption initiatives: Insights from social scientific energy research in 30
European countries. Energy Research & Social Science, 45, 297–306.
Sahakian, M. (2017). Toward a more solidaristic sharing economy: Examples
from Switzerland. In M. J. Cohen, H. S. Brown, & P. J. Vergragt (Eds.),
Social change and the coming of post-consumer society: Theoretical advances and
policy implications. oxon and New York: Routledge.
Sahakian, M., & Bertho, B. (2018). L’électricité au quotidien: le rôle des normes
sociales pour la transition énergétique suisse. Genève, Suisse, Fonds national