Changing behaviour: A European action research project

Changing behaviour: A European action research project

Heiskanen, E.
Feenstra, C.F.J.
Johnson, M.

2010-10-27

CHANGING BEHAVIOUR is a project that aims to support change in energy use and energy services. We do so by applying social research on technological change to practical use. Our focus is on the interaction between energy experts and energy users: How can these different groups learn to understand each other better? Another focus is the role of context in successful interventions to change energy behaviour. CHANGING BEHAVIOUR is an action research project. Researchers and practitioners work together to develop, test and refine tools for improved interaction. The aim is to bring theoretical insights and practical experience into fruitful dialogue through a number of stages of action, observation and joint reflection. An inventory and meta-analysis of previous more and less successful European programmes and projects to save energy is conducted. These practical experiences from previous projects and programmes are combined with theoretical insights of end-user behavior in the development of a conceptual framework of sociotechnical change. This framework is further refined by dialogue workshops with intermediary organizations and is made actionable in pilot projects, in which context-tailored best practice projects are implemented in different European countries. The lessons learned throughout the process are evaluated and build into a Toolkit (MECHanisms - Make Energy Change Happen) for practitioners, which is sensitive to the role of context, actors and timing in designing projects to promote energy saving.

Behaviour change
energy saving
action research
toolkit

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:622cb016-30fd-4afd-8d87-cc7bc621e45c

Conference proceedings

conference paper

(c) 2010 Heiskanen, E.; Feenstra, C.F.J.; Johnson, M.