Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/12454
Title: "This is not a burning issue for me": How citizens justify their use of wood heaters in a city with a severe air pollution problem
Contributor(s): Reeve, Ian  (author); Scott, John  (author)orcid ; Hine, Donald W  (author)orcid ; Bhullar, Navjot  (author)orcid 
Publication Date: 2013
DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2013.01.042
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/12454
Abstract: Although wood smoke pollution has been linked to health problems, wood burning remains a popular form of domestic heating in many countries across the world. In this paper, we describe the rhetoric of resistance to wood heater regulation amongst citizens in the regional Australian town of Armidale, where wood smoke levels regularly exceed national health advisory limits. We discuss how this is related to particular sources of resistance, such as affective attachment to wood heating and socio-cultural norms. The research draws on six focus groups with participants from households with and without wood heating. With reference to practice theory, we argue that citizen discourses favouring wood burning draw upon a rich suite of justifications and present this activity as a natural and traditional activity promoting comfort and cohesion. Such discourses also emphasise the identity of the town as a rural community and the supposed gemeinschaft qualities of such places. We show that, in this domain of energy policy, it is not enough to present 'facts' which have little emotional association or meaning for the populace. Rather, we need understand how social scripts, often localised, inform identity and practice.
Publication Type: Journal Article
Source of Publication: Energy Policy, v.57, p. 204-211
Publisher: Elsevier Ltd
Place of Publication: United Kingdom
ISSN: 1873-6777
0301-4215
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: 170199 Psychology not elsewhere classified
170113 Social and Community Psychology
170202 Decision Making
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: 520199 Applied and developmental psychology not elsewhere classified
420403 Psychosocial aspects of childbirth and perinatal mental health
520401 Cognition
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: 960199 Air Quality not elsewhere classified
920401 Behaviour and Health
920405 Environmental Health
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: 200401 Behaviour and health
200499 Public health (excl. specific population health) not elsewhere classified
Peer Reviewed: Yes
HERDC Category Description: C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal
Appears in Collections:Journal Article

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