SCI Seminar Series - Dr Kate Burningham
| Dates: | 29 April 2015 |
|---|
| Times: | 16:00 - 17:30 |
|---|
| What is it: | Seminar |
|---|
| Organiser: | Sustainable Consumption Institute |
|---|
| Speaker: | Dr Kate Burningham |
|---|
|
|
Abstract
Lifecourse transitions are often accompanied by changes in household economy, leisure practices and social networks and characterised as times of reflection on identity and lifestyle. For policy makers interested in encouraging healthy or sustainable consumption such periods might be thought to provide ‘windows of opportunity’ in which to deliver interventions (Darnton et al 2011).
There is little sustained work, however, which explores how, when and why mundane aspects of everyday life change as people move through such transitions; and it is unclear how long any such changes are maintained. Existing studies of the adoption of sustainable consumption practices do not typically track individuals over time and longitudinal studies of life transitions rarely consider sustainability implications.
This paper draws on longitudinal research with 40 new mothers which explored how various aspects of everyday life, which have implications for sustainable consumption, changed or remained stable over a period of two years. Some significant aspects of the experience of this transition which have implications for everyday routines are outlined. Focusing on data from repeat interviews with sixteen women in London and Scotland, I explore some of the ways in which modes and meanings of everyday shopping for food shift as women become mothers, and challenge a simple reading of this transition as a potential moment of change for more sustainable consumption.
Speaker
Dr Kate Burningham
Role: Senior Lecturer
Organisation: University of Surrey
Biography: Kate is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Centre for Environmental Strategy at the University of Surrey. Her research interests focus on the social construction of environmental problems, public environmental knowledge, environmental inequalities and sustainable lifestyles. She was a co-investigator in the ESRC research group on Lifestyles, Values and Energy Consumption (RESOLVE) and the ESRC, Defra and Scottish Government funded Sustainable Lifestyles Research Group (SLRG) in which she led a qualitative longitudinal project Exploring Lifestyle Changes in Transition (Elicit). From January 2016 she will be a Co-Investigator in the recently announced ESRC centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP) . http://www.cusp.ac.uk/.
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
10.05
Harold Hankins
