How Infrastructures and Practices Shape Each Other: Aggregation, Integration and the Introduction of Gas Central Heating

Matt Watson and Elizabeth Shove
Additional contact information
Matt Watson: The University of Sheffield, UK
Elizabeth Shove: Lancaster University, UK

Sociological Research Online, 2023, vol. 28, issue 2, 373-388

Abstract: We know that networked infrastructures enable forms of mobility, energy use, and flows of data, and we know that modern life depends on these arrangements. We also know that relations between infrastructures and social practices are recursive, extensive, and multiple. But what of the detail? How do infrastructures shape the many practices to which they relate, and vice versa? The research we describe was designed to address these questions head on. We discuss the arrival and normalisation of gas central heating with reference to householders’ experiences and practices and to the ambitions and decisions of utilities and city authorities. In the process, we identify forms of aggregation and of integration on which infrastructure – practice dynamics depend. In taking this approach, we demonstrate the relevance of practice theory for conceptualising and analysing ‘large’ social phenomena including transitions in energy systems and related patterns of demand.

Keywords: aggregation; energy demand; infrastructure; integration; social practice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13607804211055495 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socres:v:28:y:2023:i:2:p:373-388

DOI: 10.1177/13607804211055495

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Sociological Research Online
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().