THEMES / SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLES

RESOLVE | Research group on Lifestyles, Values and Environment

The overarching aim of this CUSP forerunner project was to explore the complex relationship between people’s lifestyles, societal values and the environment. In operation from 2006 to 2011, RESOLVE pioneered international research on sustainable lifestyles and provided robust social science evidence base for policymakers seeking to understand and to influence the behaviours and practices of ‘energy consumers’ in the light of climate change. Full details can be found on the archive page.

(CC) Broesis / Pixabay.com

Summary

The overarching aim of this £5m research project was to explore the complex relationship between people’s lifestyles, societal values and the environment. In particular, RESOLVE provided robust social science evidence base for policymakers seeking to understand and to influence the behaviours and practices of ‘energy consumers’ in the light of climate change.

At the time the proposal for RESOLVE was first offered to the ESRC in mid-2004, the principal investigator Prof Tim Jackson was in the final stages of an ESRC fellowship entitled Towards a Social Psychology of Sustainable Consumption. The foundational ideas for the RESOLVE work programme emerged in part from this fellowship and in part from existing collaborations between Prof Jackson and the other co-investigators. The fellowship had identified a clear need to connect existing social science understandings about lifestyle and consumer motivation to the emerging debates about energy and climate change. Energy consumption and the associated carbon emissions are driven as much by the aspirations of ordinary people as they are by the technology of energy supply. Questions of affiliation, distinction, status, identity, meaning and habit are as relevant to climate change mitigation as are questions about motive power, thermal comfort, fuel demand and conversion efficiency. 

RESOLVE made a timely and innovative contribution to national and international debates about energy, climate change and sustainability. In one sense it pioneered a research area that was almost waiting to emerge. At the time when the RESOLVE team commenced their work programme, in May 2006, there were few initiatives of comparable size (around 30 people) either in the UK or abroad, although the need for such initiatives had begun to be articulated. In spite of these emerging realisations, there was little, in the early days of RESOLVE’s work, in the way of either academic research or policy framework that linked social science understandings of lifestyles and values directly with the emerging demands of sustainability. Certainly, RESOLVE was unique enough in its aims and focus to attract and retain people’s attention as a substantial and innovative research initiative.

During the course of RESOLVE’s grant, an increasing number of research and policy initiatives began to address questions of lifestyles and sustainability. The subject of ‘behaviour change’ achieved an even wider attention in policy circles, particularly following the publication in the UK of ‘Nudge’ (Thaler and Sunstein 2008). Drawing partly on work carried out under Prof Jackson’s ESRC fellowship, the Institute of Governance produced an influential pamphlet entitled MindSpace – an acronym for the factors deemed to influence people’s behaviour. In 2009, the House of Lords launched an inquiry on behaviour change and the Cabinet Office set up a new behavioural sciences unit. Not only did RESOLVE pre-figure and sometimes stimulate these new initiatives, but the team participated in many of them and contributed to the widening discussions about sustainable lifestyles.

The period during which RESOLVE was operating proved to be one of dramatic change. As the final report demonstrates, RESOLVE not only observed and engaged in research about those changes, it also participated actively in the politics of change. The thematic aims that motivated the formation of the research group remained broadly intact. But changing circumstances provided a new set of challenges to be negotiated and a fertile basis from which to build an important portfolio of research.

Publications

In terms of outputs, RESOLVE has been prolific. Collectively, the research team has published eight books, 118 journal papers, and 118 newspaper and magazine articles and numerous follow on publications since. A full list of publications is available for download in pdf. If you’re interested in browsing the original website for announcements and events, please see the archive page.

Projects

The unique, inter-disciplinary research programme arranged around three interwoven strands of primary research—Lifestyle Mapping, the Social Psychology of Energy-Related Behaviours and the Sociology of Lifestyles—and two cross-cutting themes: Lifestyles Scenarios and Governance and Policy Implications. An overview of the individual research projects can be accessed below. Follow the links to review the project summaries and related publications.

Bare Necessities: How Much Household Carbon Do We Really Need?

This project explored the minimum amount of household carbon required for a ‘decent’ life in the UK.

Project summary. 

Barriers in Energy Behaviour among End Consumers and Households (BarEnergy)

The main aim of the project was to develop methods to identify the relevance and strengths of various barriers for energy behaviour changes among end consumers and households and to discuss how activities from political authorities, energy producers and NGOs can overcome these barriers.  Six European countries participated in the three-year project – the UK; the Netherlands; France; Hungary; Switzerland; and Norway.  In addition, researchers from Greece also took part in the quantitative consumer survey.

Project summary. 

Carbon Soundings – The Response of the Music Industry to Climate Change

The aim of the study was to investigate the response of the UK music industry to climate change by examining the perceptions of music businesses, artists and fans as to the activities, efforts and role of music to catalyst environmental change.

Project summary. 

Predicting UK household expenditure and associated GHG emissions: outlook to 2030

In order to help move towards more sustainable consumption and lower emissions in the future, this project attempted to predict disaggregated UK household expenditure and their associated direct and indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Project summary.

Development of Commercial Local Area Resource and Emissions Modelling

Through bringing together various datasets and methods, this project develops a framework to generate comprehensive greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, waste and water use estimates for individual and all businesses of a sector in an area (from two different perspectives) which otherwise may not exist or be reported.

Project summary.

Does one size fit all? The varying carbon footprints of different types of UK households

One of the challenges faced by policy-makers in the transition to a sustainable energy economy is the need to understand the empirical links between people’s consumption patterns and their carbon emissions. It is, perhaps, obvious that some segments of UK society have a higher carbon footprint than others, but what are the key factors that produce the differences? And what is the extent of the disparities? In this study we investigated the carbon footprints of different types of UK households.

Project summary.

 

Formatting the consumer: co-constructing demand for laptop computers

Through an exploration of the design, marketing, purchase, use and disposal of the laptop computer this project set out to investigate the role of both consumers and producers in shaping demand for the product.

Project summary.

Real world attempts to live sustainably

The project aimed to explore ‘sustainable lifestyles’ from the perspective of those who identify themselves as attempting to live one.

Project summary.

Fairness: what role could it play in household level energy reduction?

Through exploring individual’s perceptions of fairness, this study sets out to investigate what role fairness could play in reducing energy consumption at the household level.

Project summary.

Transition Culture: An Engaged Ethnography of the Transition Movement

The purpose of this research is to explore Transition (Town) movement strategies and experiences of mobilising community-based action for a low carbon future, particularly the evolving food, energy and transport activities being developed by Transition initiatives in southern England.

Project summary.

Prosperity without Growth

The aim of this project was to explore the relationship between economic growth, prosperity and sustainability in a world where the population is expected to exceed 9 billion in the second half of this century. It set out to consider whether prevailing models of economic growth can be compatible with living within ecological limits and if not what alternative approaches exist for achieving prosperity and a decent quality of life for all?

Project summary.

Values, identity and pro-environmental behaviour

This research explores the link between values, identities and pro-environmental behaviours among a wide range of UK consumers.

Project summary.

Household carbon: What do we do with our carbon?

Households are responsible for over three-quarters of UK carbon emissions when measured from the consumption perspective, and it is now commonly agreed that drastic reductions must be made to combat climate change. A clear understanding of how households use carbon in (attempted) satisfaction of their needs and desires will be a vital basis on which to formulate policies. Accordingly, in this study we asked the following questions. How much carbon is attributable to which kinds of needs and desires? Is the highest amount attributable to subsistence needs such as food and clothing?  Or protection (housing and security)? Or our leisure demands? Or to the need to communicate with our family and friends?

Project summary.

Scenarios of UK Consumption and Carbon Emissions to 2030

Exploring the change in carbon emissions associated with UK household consumption over the next 20 years, under a range of social, technological, economic and political conditions.

Project summary.

Changing Tastes: Meat in Our Life Histories

To use a ‘life histories’ methodology to explore and understand how meat consumption patterns develop and change over the life course.

Project summary. 

Threatened Identities and Resistance to Change (1): Meat-eating

The overall aim of this project was to test one of the key hypotheses in the RESOLVE work programme, namely that pro-environmental lifestyle changes pose a threat to people’s sense of identity and hence engender resistance to change. This early study aimed to test the ‘threatened identity’ hypothesis in the context of meat consumption.

Project summary.

Threatened Identities and Resistance to Change (2): Travel Behaviour

Following on from our early exploration of the ‘threatened identity hypothesis’ in relation to meat-eating, this project aimed to explore the same hypothesis as applied to travel behaviours. Specifically, it aimed to establish whether identity threats were present in attempts to change travel behaviour and secondly what influence threatened identities had on resistance to changes in travel behaviour.

Project summary.

Children, young people and sustainable lifestyles

To examine the issues confronting children and young people: their changing values, experiences, and future options for sustainable lifestyles.

Project summary.

Christianity and Sustainable Consumer Behaviours

The aim of the research was to investigate whether and how participation in Christian churches influences consumer behaviours (specifically, ecologically conscious, socially conscious and frugal consumer behaviours), thereby seeking a better understanding of the actual and potential contribution of Christianity to sustainable consumption.

Project summary.

Reconciling markets and governance: energy regulation in the UK, 1989 – present

The growing profile of sustainability issues in the UK over the last two decades has seen energy regulation since the late 1980s increasingly framed by environmental concerns.  This research involved an exploration of the ways in which the increasing urgency of climate change, in particular, has seen a plethora of policies developed over the last two decades, as governing bodies have tried to successfully integrate environmental objectives into the UK policy framework.

Project summary.

Is the UK making meaningful progress towards its GHG emissions targets?

To assess UK progress in greenhouse gas emissions reduction using a consumption-based perspective, which accounts for all of the emissions attributable to the consumption activities of the nation, and to compare results from this approach with measurement of progress based on a production perspective.

Project summary.

Values and sustainable lifestyles: the 21­st century living project

There is increasing pressure on households to change lifestyles and adopt behaviours which require less energy and natural resources. At the same time, retailers and producers of consumer goods aim to persuade people to consume more through commercial advertisements. Much social science research fails to examine the relative influence of both environmental concern and materialism simultaneously. Moreover, it tends to focus on behaviours with pro-environmental intent, thereby ignoring many consumer behaviours which may have a significant environmental impact.

Project summary.

Lifestyles, leisure and sustainability

Using a qualitative in-depth approach, this study aimed to examine the role of ‘leisure’ in relation to sustainable lifestyles and future conditions marked by higher energy prices.

Project summary.

Rebound and Backfire Effects from Abatement Actions by UK Households

Do household abatement actions aimed at reducing carbon emissions, such as walking instead of driving short journeys, achieve the reductions predicted? Or are the reductions achieved in practice lower?

Project summary.

Communities and Social Change: conceptual understandings and practical applications

To explore theoretical and intellectual conceptions of ‘community’ and social change from sociological literatures supported by insights from a range of empirical research studies.

Project summary.

Community Engagement in Low Carbon Activities: ‘state’ and ‘non-state’ initiatives

To investigate the role of community-based governance mechanisms and initiatives pursued by ‘state’ and ‘non-state’ actors, and to explore the comparative advantages associated with a variety of community-based interventions.

Project summary.

Mindfulness and Compulsive Buying

Excessive consumption of goods and resources in developed countries is seen as a key contributor to a number of environmental problems, particularly climate change.  Reducing consumption decreases environmental impacts, and should be encouraged as part of a larger strategy of seeking sustainable lifestyles.  A type of ‘excessive’ consumer considered in this research is the compulsive buyer, someone who is addicted to buying and shopping.

Project summary.

Community groups and social networks – mobilising local action on climate change?

To examine the agency of existing community groups in using their drive and cohesion to encourage adoption of improved home energy management and sustainable lifestyle habits among their members and the broader communities in which they operate.

Project summary.

Structural Time Series Model of Household Expenditure: economic v non-economic factor

In order to help move towards more sustainable consumption and lower emissions in the future, this project attempted to model disaggregated UK household expenditure and to quantify the contributions of economic and non-economic factors that drive UK consumer expenditure.

Project summary.

Paradigms, Policy and Governance: the Politics of Energy Regulation in the UK Post-2000

This study considers the debate around energy policy and government regulation in the UK, considering Dieter Helm’s idea that the current period can be conceptualised as a distinct ideological paradigm in the same way that both nationalisation and privatisation were enmeshed within particular political and economic goals.  Drawing on the work of Catherine Mitchell,  the study explores Helm’s observations on the link between ‘paradigms and policy’ in order to consider whether a more radical shift in direction and thinking is needed than the framework for the UK Government’s more recent targets on reducing carbon emissions and ensuring energy security.

Project summary.

World Systems, International Relations, and the Politics of the UNFCCC

The main aim of the project was to explore historical reasons for the political failure of the UNFCCC process to produce a substantive global climate change strategy.  The political process around COP-15 served to provide a graphic, media heightened illustration of the many weaknesses in the UNFCCC process.   Drawing on Wallerstein’s idea of a ‘capitalist world system’, the research suggests that that the reproduction of this unequal core-periphery relationship in the UNFCCC invariably limits the prospect of a global low carbon future.

Project summary.

Young People, Consumption and the Environment

This research explores materialistic and environmental concerns among young people who are growing up in different modern societies (Europe and China). It specifically studies how these concerns are related to their lifestyles, and their consumer and pro-environmental behaviour choices as well as their subjective wellbeing.

Project summary.

What’s next

Project funding for RESOLVE ended in 2011. Before coming together as CUSP, research was being picked up under the umbrella of the Sustainable Lifestyles Research Group, also directed by Prof Tim Jackson, and co-funded by the ESRC, Defra and the Scottish Government. Please see the SLRG project page for details.

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