Programme full

Stream Plenaries and Special Sessions
THURSDAY 15 APRIL 2015 09:30-10:30
dominated by the behavioural and natural sciences. Here, contributions argue that better use be made of social
sciences’ intellectual resources. In particular, Shove (2010) suggests that we move beyond the dominant paradigm of
‘ABC’ – ‘attitude, behaviour, choice’ that is underpinned by a simplistic and ultimately problematic conception of social
action. The session will explore these debates around the role of sociological insights in transitions toward postcarbon
societies.
Energy Transition as Social Transition
This plenary session will consider the key implications of global energy choices – both for social science and for
society. Energy can be over-used as a lens for viewing social processes. But it is nonetheless of profound importance.
Understanding possible ‘sustainable energy’ transformations requires attention to many tricky issues in social theory:
around agency and structure and the interplay of power, contingency and practice. These factors are as much shaping
of the knowledges and normativities supposedly driving transformation, as they are shaped by them. So, ideas and
hopes about possible pathways for change – as well as notions of ‘the transition’ itself – can be deeply constituted by
incumbent interests. The session will aim to initiate discussion on challenges related to this for social science,
focusing particularly on the difficulties associated with enabling more democratic exercise of social agency.
(Stirling 2014, Energy Research and Social Science, 1 pp. 83-95.)
Challenging Carbon ‘Lock-in’: A Sociological Evidence Base for Policy Geared towards Inculcating More
Sustainable Ways of Life
Central to debates concerned with societal transition toward low-carbon living is the imperative to encourage individual
subjects to shift their behaviours to support more sustainable ways of life; choosing to eat less meat, consuming less
energy and water, and wasting less of what we do consume. Armed with the most topical information, contemporary
consumers might be considered somewhat short-sighted not to cease meat eating as a practice, driving to work and
leaving on the lights when stepping out of a room. However, despite the availability of information concerning how
much money we could save were we to consume and waste less, we continue performing practices that demands
such consumption. Suggesting that the ways in which we consume are the result of interconnection between
meanings, knowledges and materials, this plenary session explores the complexity of social, cultural and material
factors contributing to the entrenchment of unsustainable ways of life. In this way, the session will unpack the nuances
of a widely held perception of consumers as free agents of ‘choice’ and explore what a sociologically informed
understanding of practice could mean for future strategies aimed at inculcating more sustainable ways of life in the
face of global environmental changes. In addition, to this debates about lock-in and dominant discourses also highlight
the role of incumbent actors and organisations (such as energy companies) and wider neo-liberal rationalities that
underlay current market formations in limiting social progression or change. The session will further engage with these
critical perspectives and reflect on the space that sociology as a discipline can open up for marginal voices.
Shove, E.
(Lancaster University)
Stirling, A.
(University of Sussex)
Burningham, K.
(University of Surrey)
Families and Relationships
M225, GEORGE MOORE BUILDING
SOCIOLOGICAL AND POLICY PERSPECTIVES ON FAMILY AND RELATIONAL LIVES: LOOKING BACK AND
LOOKING FORWARD
This plenary will draw upon the substantial body of work undertaken by Rosalind Edwards, which will offer a
stimulating overview of sociological perspectives on family lives and policies over time.
Rosalind has researched and published widely in the areas of family life and policies. Her work takes a critical
sociological approach coupled with feminist relational perspectives to understand family life and in doing so she has
engaged with some of the major ideas and assumptions underpinning the development of family policies over time.
She has developed a cumulative programme of work on 'mixing and mixedness', with a particular focus on parenting
35 BSA Annual Conference 2015
Glasgow Caledonian University