Comfort in a Lower Carbon Society

Elizabeth Shove is professor of Sociology at Lancaster University. She has written widely on theories of practice, technology, consumption, environment and everyday life. She is co editor (with Frank Trentmann and Rick Wilk) of Time, Consumption and Everyday Life: Practices, materiality and culture (Berg, forthcoming 2009).Heather Chappells is honorary research fellow in Geography at Lancaster University. She has undertaken several projects examining the social, institutional and cultural dimensions of sustainable consumption, provision and practices in the UK energy and water sectors - including Future Comforts: Reconditioning indoor environments with Elizabeth Shove (ESRC, 2003-2004).Loren Lutzenhiser is Professor of Urban Studies and Planning at Portland State University. His research focuses on the environmental impacts of socio-technical systems, particularly how urban energy and resource use is related to global environmental change.

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• 1. Introduction: Comfort in a Lower Carbon Society Elizabeth Shove, Heather Chappells, Loren Lutzenhiser and Bruce Hackett 2. Air-conditioning and the ‘homogenization’ of people and built environments Stephen Healy 3. Re-contextualizing the notion of comfort Raymond Cole, John Robinson, Zosia Brown and Meg O’Shea 4. Conquering winter: US consumers and the cast iron stove Howell Harris 5. Growth in mobile air-conditioning: a socio-technical research agenda Graham Parkhurst and Richard Parnaby 6. Understanding heat wave vulnerability in nursing and residential homes Sam Brown and Gordon Walker 7. Escaping the house: comfort and the California garden Gail Cooper 8. Comfort expectations: the impact of demand-management strategies in Australia Yolande Strengers 9. New standards for comfort and energy in building J. F. Nicol and M. A. Humphreys Commentaries 10. The conditioning of comfort Harold Wilhite 11. Comfort in a brave new world Ian Cooper 12. Are Comfort Expectations of Building Occupants Too High? Mithra Moezzi 13. Cold Comfort in a High Carbon Society? Jim Skea 14. Studying thermal comfort in context Russell Hitchings