Climate change or social change? Debate within, amongst and beyond disciplines
In ‘Beyond the ABC: climate change policy and theories of social change’, Shove (2010) acknowledges her position to be ‘deliberately provocative’: and as (social) scientists of all description interested in climate change, an openness and questioning of the methodologies and epistemology underlying our research should be welcomed. Shove aims to explain how all social science disciplines contain theoretical understandings that can constructively contribute to improving the management of huge societal challenges such as climate change, and ultimately, sustainability. Shove’s article is enlightening in many ways, highlighting the need to give greater attention to structural dimensions of unsustainability and social change, to the limitations of individualistic models of behaviour, and to the value of socio-technical and practice approaches to address climate change. One of Shove’s main critiques, we find, lies in the suggestion that the ABC (‘attitude-behaviour-choice’) model remains prevalent in policy circles, as it tailors with “the dominant paradigms of economics and psychology” (p 1274). Our reading suggests that her paper is restricted in its simplistic portrayals of psychological models of behaviour, and wholesale dismissal of non-sociological approaches to social or behavioural change. It is frustrating - especially in relation to sustainability where there has been some success in bringing together different disciplines towards similar aims and goals - that different disciplinary perspectives continue to be perceived both as necessarily opposed and in opposition.
Environment and Planning A, 43, 258-261
Whitmarsh_et_al_2011_Climate_change_social_change.pdf