Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Designing urban knowledge
T2 - competing perspectives on energy and buildings
AU - Guy, Simon
PY - 2006/10
Y1 - 2006/10
N2 - The author engages with debates about buildings, energy efficiency, and the innovation process-issues that are of great significance for urban sustainability because buildings are such an important constituent of urban energy consumption. Within this context, the author explores what it might mean to develop an interdisciplinary understanding of technical change. Questioning conventional accounts, he develops a sociotechnical perspective on competing energy knowledges and contexts of design, development, and consumption. It is argued that energy research and policy-making for the built environment is underpinned by a common understanding of technical change, which fails to take account of the contextual nature of energy-related choice. Describing cultural, organisational, and commercial factors shaping technological innovation, the author explores how more-or-less energy-efficient choices influencing urban development are made in response to changing opportunities and practices which sometimes favor energy efficiency, sometimes not. The author draws upon sociological accounts of technical change and illustrates both a sociotechnical perspective on energy and buildings and a key role for sociologists in the field of architecture, energy, and environmental studies.
AB - The author engages with debates about buildings, energy efficiency, and the innovation process-issues that are of great significance for urban sustainability because buildings are such an important constituent of urban energy consumption. Within this context, the author explores what it might mean to develop an interdisciplinary understanding of technical change. Questioning conventional accounts, he develops a sociotechnical perspective on competing energy knowledges and contexts of design, development, and consumption. It is argued that energy research and policy-making for the built environment is underpinned by a common understanding of technical change, which fails to take account of the contextual nature of energy-related choice. Describing cultural, organisational, and commercial factors shaping technological innovation, the author explores how more-or-less energy-efficient choices influencing urban development are made in response to changing opportunities and practices which sometimes favor energy efficiency, sometimes not. The author draws upon sociological accounts of technical change and illustrates both a sociotechnical perspective on energy and buildings and a key role for sociologists in the field of architecture, energy, and environmental studies.
KW - CONSERVATION
KW - POLICY
KW - DIFFERENCE
KW - INNOVATION
KW - EFFICIENCY
U2 - 10.1068/c0607j
DO - 10.1068/c0607j
M3 - Journal article
VL - 24
SP - 645
EP - 659
JO - Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy
JF - Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy
SN - 0263-774X
IS - 5
ER -