"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

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
Publication Date
2013
Author(s)
Reeve, Ian
Scott, John
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9027-9425
Email: jscott6@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:jscott6
Hine, Donald W
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3905-7026
Email: dhine@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:dhine
Bhullar, Navjot
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1616-6094
Email: nbhulla2@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:nbhulla2
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Elsevier Ltd
Place of publication
United Kingdom
DOI
10.1016/j.enpol.2013.01.042
UNE publication id
une:12661
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.
Link
Citation
Energy Policy, v.57, p. 204-211
ISSN
1873-6777
0301-4215
Start page
204
End page
211

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