Susse Georg

The Social Shaping of Household Consumption

Abstract This paper deals with a recurrent theme in the sustainability debate: the necessity of changing Western consumption patterns and ‘lifestyles’. Unlike most accounts, in which the principle mechanisms for ensuring this are ‘top-down’ approaches of government policies, this paper focuses on the ‘bottom-up’ approaches of citizens seeking to develop less environmentally damaging technologies and ways of living. The paper examines three Scandinavian examples to illustrate how citizens are voluntarily seeking to internalise some of the externalities of everyday life and provide the collective good of improved environmental quality. The paper discusses the importance of social relations in the shaping of people’s preferences for environmental goods. The paper draws out what lessons can be learned from these initiatives and focuses on three factors affecting the future growth and proliferation of citizen-led initiatives: upscaling, the transferability of social experiments and the pervasive societal commitments to unsustainable behaviour.

Constructing buildings and design ambitions

Project goals are conceptualized in the construction management literature as either stable and exogenously given or as emerging endogenously during the construction process. Disparate as these perspectives may be, they both overlook the role that material objects used in construction processes can play in transforming knowledge and thereby shaping project goals. Actor‐network theory is used to explore the connection between objects and knowledge with the purpose of developing an adaptive and pragmatic approach to goals in construction. Based on a case study of the construction of a skyscraper, emphasis is given to how design ambitions emerge in a process of goal translation, and to how, once these ambitions are materialized, tensions between aesthetic and functional concerns emerge and are resolved. These tensions are resolved through trials of strength as the object—the building—is elaborated and circulates across sites in various forms, e.g. artistic sketches, drawings and models. Given that initial goal accuracy is often seen as a key success factor, these insights have theoretical and practical implications for the management and evaluation of the construction project.

The social management of environmental change

While environmental change and policy responses to environmental threat have attracted considerable attention from government and industry over the past decade, conventional approaches have tended to be individualistic, naturalistic and government-led in orientation. This article considers a perspective on ‘sustainable development’ which emphasizes citizen-led initiatives. In particular, the possibilities for ‘bridging the gap’ between innovation processes and the implementation of technology are discussed. Three European case-studies are presented of a constructive and citizen-led ‘social management’ of environmental change—urban ecology, wind energy and science shops. Conclusions are then reached about the policy and theoretical significance of these social experiments.

Clean technology — Innovation and environmental regulation

The development and diffusion of clean technologies has an important role to play in preventing pollution. Government must address the issue of how firms can be given the necessary incentive to develop environmentally sound production techniques and products. This paper focus on how subsidies can — under certain restrictive conditions — stimulate innovation. Subsidization is usually assumed to involve unit subsidies for pollution reduction. Unit subsidies have little to do with the subsidy schemes in actual use. Our focus is on subsidy schemes specifically designed to promote the development of clean technologies through the use of grants/financial aid. Based on data from the development projects initiated through The Danish Clean Technology Programme we analyze how environmental innovations take place when the polluters, their suppliers and consultants are actively engaged in the development processes. The main merit of subsidy schemes like the Danish one is its direct focus on the innovation processes and the active incorporation of the network of firms surrounding the polluters. Our findings lead us to conclude that when it comes to subsidization, the role of government should be redefined. Government can act as a “matchmaker” by providing firms with informative incentives and necessary contacts for finding more efficient technological solutions to specific environmental problems.

On the emergence of roles in construction: the qualculative role of project management

Within construction, roles are generally thought of in terms of a division of labour, tasks and responsibilities, established through contractual and/or cultural relations. Moreover, roles are also presumed to be relatively stable. Drawing upon actor network theory, roles are re‐conceptualized and it is argued that roles are emergent and that they depend upon the tools and devices with which the project managers are equipped. A case study of the construction of a skyscraper, the ‘Turning Torso’, in Malmö, Sweden highlights the hybrid role of project management. In some instances project management may act as a mediator having qualitative effects on the project while in other instances project management may only be an intermediary, merely speeding up the process by conveying the concerns of others. The concept of qualculative project management is introduced to account for this emerging hybrid role. The analysis shows the ways in which the budget and other devices participates in enacting a qualculative role for project management, while simultaneously being involved in negotiating boundaries between professional roles in construction as well as the qualitative and quantitative properties of the building.

The Institutionalization of Environmental Concerns Making the Environment Perform

Abstract We offer an account of the process of“greening,” exploring how an environmental management tool becomes embedded in organizational rhetoric and practice. This is depicted as a process of translation in which the “original” tool is transformed to fit the context. Theoretically, we seek to complement new institutional theory by providing an understanding of the institutionalization of environmental concerns in organizations. Sensemaking and actor-network theories are used to conceptualize the process of institutionalization as it goes on inside organizations. The empirical basis is a study of the introduction of green accounting in a public hospital in Denmark.

How objects shape logics in construction

The notion of institutional logics is a key tenet in institutional theory but few studies have attended to the micro‐foundations of logics. The sociology of associations is used to explore the micro‐foundations of logics, their emergence and temporal–spatial importance. A case study of the construction of the skyscraper, ‘Turning Torso’, in Malmö city, shows how technical objects and actions implicated in the material practices of building construction shape logics and identities associated with professions, economy, market, science and design. We summarize our findings by theorizing logics and identities as emergent and contingent outcomes of the material practices of building construction. The argument is concluded by considering the building construction as a materially mediated meaning structure.

The socio-materiality of designing organizational change

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the managerial implications of adopting a design attitude to organizational change. Design/methodology/approach – Based on an ethnographic study of a merger, the paper investigates the intricate interplay between architectural design and organizational change in the context of physically relocating an organization to a new office building. Emphasis is given to the socio-materiality of this double design process. Findings – The data suggests that taking a design attitude toward managing organizational change can allow different actors to participate in organizational design processes, releasing management from its traditional role as the keeper of the design solution. Research limitations/implications – Although based on a single case, the paper provides insights into the socio-materiality of organizational change that is relevant in other settings where developing new collective understandings of change processes are needed. Practical implications – A desi...

Energy performance gaps: promises, people, practices

The importance of improving the energy performance of buildings is widely acknowledged. Almost 40% of global energy use relates to buildings, and buildings are often said to offer great potential for reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), 2017). Furthermore, McKinsey’s ‘global GHG abatement cost curve’ (Bress et al., 2007) asserts that emissions abatement can be achieved in the building sector at relatively lower cost than in other sectors of the economy. Thus, the building sector appears to hold promise in helping to mitigate climate change through energy savings and, thereby, also contribute to energy security. Yet, when one considers developments within the building sector more closely, energy use is not decreasing (e.g. Gram-Hanssen, 2015; Darby, in this issue). Building energy performance is, of course, regulated. This has had some positive effect in the sense that new buildings are more energy efficient than older ones. However, these efficiency improvements have been insufficient in curbing building energy consumption. Building energy use continues to be a major regulatory concern, as witnessed by the gradual tightening of national building codes (in the European Union, this is in accordance with changes in the Energy Performance of Buildings Directives – EPBD), and in the increased use of voluntary standards/certification schemes to promote construction of ‘green buildings’. Regulation of building energy use is in most countries based on building codes and the use of energy labels (European Union, 2010), both of which are based on hypothetical calculations of building energy performance. Several studies have showed that there are notable differences between the predicted and actual energy performance of a building once it is inhabited (Bordass, Cohen, Standeven, & Leaman, 2001; Gram-Hanssen, Georg, Christiansen, & Heiselberg, 2017; Majcen, Itard, & Visscher, 2013; Sunikka-Blank & Galvin, 2012; van den Brom, Meijer and Visscher, in this issue). The performance gap has thus been documented in several countries. Energy policy, however, continues not to acknowledge this gap between the calculated (i.e. the anticipated or promised) and the actual consumption associated with peoples’ everyday practices in their homes and in the building sector. This provides a timely background for a special issue of Building Research & Information entitled ‘Energy Performance Gaps: Promises, People and Practices’. The issue of ‘the gap’ between the calculated and the realized is hardly new: its conceptual grounding has been subject to critical review quite some time ago (Shove, 1998), and similar issues have also been addressed in two recent special issues of this journal. In ‘Closing the Policy Gaps: From Formulations to Outcomes’ (Foxell & Cooper, 2015), emphasis is given to how gaps between formulated policy objectives regarding the built environment and the subsequent outcomes can be closed or substantially reduced. The focus on this question is one of understanding the nature of policy, policy-making, policy innovation, and the translation of policies into measures and practices. Some of the papers have more direct bearing on the results presented in this special issue, e.g. Janda and Topouzi (2015), who emphasize the overly positive expectations regarding new building technologies’ abilities to provide cheaper, more efficient, high quality and zero-carbon solutions; findings which resonate well with several of the papers in the present issue. Furthermore, the special issue dedicated to ‘Building Governance and Climate Change: Roles for Regulation and Related Policies’ (Visscher, Laubscher, & Chan, 2016) focuses on the policy

Regulatory effects in the electroplating industry—a case study in Denmark

Abstract This paper addresses the issue of stimulating diffusion of pollution abatement and prevention technologies, by analysing the electroplating industrys response to environmental regulation implemented by municipal authorities in Denmark. Our study indicates that existing environmental regulations have a significant effect in reducing the level of heavy metal discharges and on inducing the regulated firms to respond innovatively to the environmental demands.