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001 eep9781781006214
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008 130612s2013 enk ob 001 0 eng d
010 _a 2012952656
020 _a9781781006214 (e-book)
040 _aUtOrBLW
_cUtOrBLW
050 4 _aGE196
_b.G53 2013
100 1 _aGibson, Chris.
245 1 0 _aHousehold sustainability
_h[electronic resource] :
_bchallenges and dilemmas in everyday life /
_cChris Gibson ... [et al.].
260 _aCheltenham :
_bEdward Elgar Pub. Ltd.,
_c2013.
300 _a1 online resource (x, 237 p.)
504 _aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
505 0 _a1. Having a baby -- 2. Spaghetti bolognese -- 3. Clothes -- 4. Water -- 5. Warmth -- 6. Toilets -- 7. Laundry -- 8. Furniture -- 9. Plastic Bags -- 10. Driving cars -- 11. Flying -- 12. The refrigerator -- 13. Screens -- 14. Mobile phones -- 15. Solar hot water -- 16. The garden -- 17. Christmas -- 18. Retirement -- 19. Death -- 20. Conclusion.
520 _aThe question Chris Gibson and his colleagues answer in this book is simple: "Why is it not easy being green?" In 20 concise, focused and accessible chapters from birthing to dying, from toilets to Christmas they unveil the ambiguities, instabilities and paradoxes of affluent household living in the 21st century. In so doing, they temper the easy rhetoric of sustainable lifestyles with some authentic realities drawn from the affluent world. Earth system science is showing us the deep complexity of our material planet. This book brilliantly reflects back to us the complex materiality of our cultural lives. Mike Hulme, University of East Anglia, UKContrary to the common rhetoric that being green is easy, household sustainability is rife with contradiction and uncertainty. Households attempting to respond to the challenge to become more sustainable in everyday life face dilemmas on a daily basis when trying to make sustainable decisions. Various aspects of life such as cars, computers, food, phones and even birth and death, may all provoke uncertainty regarding the most sustainable course of action. Drawing on international scientific and cultural research, as well as innovative ethnographies, this timely book probes these wide-ranging sustainability dilemmas, assessing the avenues open to households trying to improve their sustainability. The authors engage critically, and constructively, with the proposition that households are a key scale of action on climate change. They confront dilemmas of practice and circumstance, and cultural norms of lifestyle and consumerism that are linked to troublesome environmental problems and question whether they can be easily unsettled. The work also illuminates the informal and often unheralded work by households frequently the poorest in reducing their environmental burden. This important book is critical to understanding both the barriers to household sustainability and the unsung sustainability work carried out by householders. Containing a unique combination of science and cultural research, this fascinating book will appeal to researchers and students of environmental science, environmental studies, sustainability studies, climate change adaptation, geography, sociology, cultural studies, science and technology studies, as well as energy studies and housing research. Policy-makers in various levels of government working through sustainability problems, environmental educators, social planners and sustainability officers working for governments, will also find much to interest them in this unique book.
650 0 _aSustainable living.
655 7 _aElectronic books.
_2lcsh
710 2 _aEdward Elgar Publishing.
776 1 _z9781781006207 (hardback)
856 4 0 _uhttps://www.elgaronline.com/view/9781781006207.xml
999 _c28916
_d28916