Theoretical Framework for the Definition of Locally-Embedded Future Policy Scenarios

This document has been prepared in the framework of the European project SMARTEES – Social Innovation Modelling Approaches to Realizing Transition to Energy Efficiency and Sustainability. Work-package: No. 5. Definition of Future Policy Scenarios. Deliverable 5.1 (Report)[Abstract] This document presents the common conceptual framework for the development of locally embedded policy scenarios in the SMARTEES case studies. The conceptual framework will inform the methodology for the co-creation of policy scenarios in each case, but also aims to be a stand-alone tool that policy-makers can use to conceptualize and implement the policy tools that can lead to citizen engagement with and acceptance of energy policy, the adoption of sustainable energy behaviours and to adequately manage setbacks and conflicts in the process.This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 763912https://local-social-innovation.eu/resources/deliverables

Environment 2.0 : the 9th Biennial Conference on Environmental Psychology, 26-28 September 2011, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

On behalf of the Environmental Psychology Division of the German Association of Psychology, the 9th Biennial International Conference on Environmental Psychology is organized by the Human-Technology Interaction (HTI) group of the School of Innovation Sciences of the Eindhoven University of Technology. The HTI group is internationally acclaimed for perception research, and has become established as a major centre of excellence in human-technology interaction research. Bringing together psychological and engineering expertise, its central mission is investigating and optimizing interactions between people, systems, and environments, in the service of a socially and ecologically sustainable society

The travel script : exploring the construction and engagement of a mental structure as the link between the influence of situational and social - psychological factors in commuting decisions along a life course

To realise a resource efficient urban transport system, both hard and soft, or voluntary behaviour change policy measures, have to be implemented. Understanding the interplay of different factors surrounding the travel decision making process is necessary to support this policy approach. This qualitative research explored the travel script as the mental link between situational and social - psychological factors in individuals’ travel decisions. Using in-depth interviews, the commuting histories of 82 commuters in Edinburgh, Scotland were collected and analysed. Factors that enabled or constrained the preferred commute mode were identified as the building blocks or knowledgeability of a travel script. Key events along a life course were identified as the situations that bound these constraints and enablers, making them more or less salient influencers of the travel decision at different points in the life course. By considering the sequence of key events related to the household, employment or residential biographies, and those related to mode changes, the study explored when the knowledgeability of the life course may lead to a turning point in the commuting biography of individuals. The study also considered how individuals judge the amount of mental effort to be expended to engage a travel script at the turning point; and later in bringing about the sustained engagement of the travel script. Individuals were noted as belonging within the identity group either geared at economising mental effort or digging deeper to “an extra little thing in the system” to engage the preferred travel script. Furthermore, in the engagement of a travel script, social - psychological attributes underlying the commute goals and the desired state of self - identity seem to be evaluated in such a way as to be in line with these identity groups. The research findings emphasise the reflexive interdependence of situational and social - psychological factors in bringing about a turning point and sustaining the travel script engaged afterwards. The treatment of the construction and engagement of the travel script along individual’s life courses in this study provides an original contribution to travel behaviour literature: firstly in its use of concepts from Structuration theory, which no other travel behaviour study has used; secondly, in its addition of knowledge to the mobility biography, travel habits and travel identities literature. The research also provides further evidence to researchers on the need for extensive public transport and active travel infrastructure; and the need for a patient and concerted effort towards a culture change away from car dependence in commuting

Psychological and contextual influences on travel mode choice for commuting

Travel behaviour - especially car use - is of concern because it contributes to environmental problems such as climate change. Focusing on commuting, this thesis aimed to explain people's travel mode decisions and what might motivate drivers to switch modes. The literature shows that - as in the wider field of environmentallysignificant behaviour - Schwartz's norm-activation theory (NAT) and Ajzen's theory of planned behaviour (TPB) are predominant in travel psychology. Research undertaken for this thesis was based on these theories. Study 1 used logistic regression (n = 312) to test NAT and the TPB's ability to explain drivers' intentions to maintain or reduce their car use for commuting to De Montfort University (DMU). A model using variables from both theories was also tested, as was a model that added contextual variables to these psychological constructs. The model including contextual variables had the greatest predictive power (shown by Rl values). There were interactions between several predictor variables. Most notably, the influence of altruistic (pro-environmental) motives on intentions was moderated by perceived control over commuting mode choice and by contextual factors including bicycle ownership, carriage of passengers and journey time. In study 2,24 semi-structured interviews were undertaken with commuters to DMU. Using discourse analytic techniques, the prevalent stances on car use and use of other modes for travel to work were identified. Many echoed NAT and TPB constructs (e.g. moral motives, perceived control over modal choice), underlining these theories' applicability to commuting. However, other stances were also evident, most notably affective motives and habits as reasons for commuting mode decisions. People drew on various combinations of these discourses to explain their commuting behaviour. The thesis proposes a new model of commuting mode choice and suggests guidelines for interventions designed to encourage drivers to use alternative modes. However, it is stressed that reliance on attitude-behaviour research alone may ignore wider sociocultural influences on travel behaviour. Suggestions are made regarding theoretical perspectives and methods that may help in understanding these forces and a case is made for mixed-method research as the way ahead for travel psychology

Resource urbanisms: Asia’s divergent city models of Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Singapore and Hong Kong

This report presents the key findings of the Resource Urbanisms project that LSE Cities at the London School of Economics and Political Science led between 2015 and 2017. This research, supported by the Kuwait Programme at the LSE Middle East Centre investigated questions of urban form, geography and sustainability in Kuwait and the Gulf States as part of a broader comparative analysis of divergent forms of urban growth in Asia. Given the distinct patterns of urban development, and the central role of land availability and natural resources, particularly oil, in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, this research focused on two natural resources, land and energy, and explored their relationships with urban form, transport and housing. It analysed these relationships through a comparative case study approach focusing on the city of Kuwait and Abu Dhabi in the GCC, and Hong Kong and Singapore in East Asia. Both the GCC and East Asian case studies are cities with similar income levels, but exhibit contrasting forms of urban development. More importantly, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi are endowed with vast amounts of natural resources, while Hong Kong and Singapore possess limited natural resources, making them useful and contrasting cases for comparative purposes. The research had four main objectives: first, it analysed the models of urban development that have emerged in Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong and Singapore through an inter-urban and intra-urban comparison. Second, it compared the GCC models of urbanisation (Kuwait and Abu Dhabi) with the contrasting forms of development in Hong Kong and Singapore. Third, it provided fresh evidence on the relationship between the built environment, land availability and energy costs, with a particular focus on transport and urban form as well as housing and urban morphology. Finally, it sought to better understand the dynamics between the availability and costs of resources, government interventions, urban form and infrastructure, and environmental outcomes..

Attitudinal Tension & Moral Dilemma Dynamics: The Role of Psychological Determinants in Overcoming the Behaviour Inertia in Car Use

Tackling climate change has become a priority of the political agenda in many countries around the world. The problems related to global warming have been mainly attributed to human actions, as anthropogenic behaviours are responsible for the excess of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Therefore, understanding the factors that drive these behaviours are the first step to create effective policies, in order to know how to change people’s non-environmentally friendly behaviours. This thesis assesses the usefulness of system dynamics to create a simulation model that can explain the main theories proposed in environmental psychology to reduce car use. In the UK, transportation has become one of the major responsible for emitting more greenhouse gases than any other sector. Therefore, understanding the psychological determinants that impede drivers to consider alternative transport modes becomes essential to fight climate change. Based on the data collected by Department for Transport (UK), this thesis tests several changes on psychological determinants that can trigger important changes in the levels of car use. The factors involved in explaining car use are described, as well as the causes that play a key role in determining the behavioural intention towards car use. The study reveals several feedback loops that explain individual’s car choice. It also demonstrates that creating multi-level interventions may be designed, so as to obtain important behavioural changes in this matter. For example, modifying car habit, as well as personal norms, and attitudes lead to faster changes than focusing on one variable at a time. In theoretical terms, the model reveals the supremacy of changing factors related to the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), suggesting a reason it has become so popular. Nevertheless, the model demonstrates that modifying TPB alongside other factors from other theoretical frameworks lead to more satisfactory results

Taking the complexity turn to steer carbon reduction policy: applying practice theory, complexity theory and cultural practices to policies addressing climate change

Achieving the Scottish Government’s carbon reduction targets requires not only the decarbonisation of industry and electricity generation, which is now largely underway, but also significant changes in the actions and decisions of millions of individuals, whose carbon emissions fall outside the areas which Government can control. Transport, much of it undertaken by individuals, accounts for around 20% of Scotland’s carbon emissions. Policy aimed at changing individual travel behaviours will therefore become increasingly important. Commonly applied behaviour change strategies based on rational actor theory face conceptual problems and cannot overcome the lack of agency experienced by individuals buffeted by a range of influences in a complex world. Practice theory relocates the site of analysis from the individual to the social and helps to overcome these problems, but it is not clear how to deliberately change practices to achieve the carbon reductions required. Understanding practices as emergent properties of complex social systems suggests that working to alter the complex social system may lead to different emergent properties, i.e. more sustainable practices. My research explored this approach by conducting an experiment in Aberdeen that sought to influence the complex social system within which audiences travel to a large theatre in the city. Emergent properties of the system encouraged travel by private car: problems of (in)convenience and insecurity were shaping individuals’ travel practices. Collaboration between actors powerful enough to affect the system – a transport provider, a local authority and the theatre itself – was needed to influence it sufficiently to bring about a change in the main travel mode from private cars to public transport. Analysis of this case identifies the need to acknowledge the relevance of complexity theory when developing carbon reduction policy. Perverse incentives encouraging public organisations to focus on their own ‘direct’ carbon emissions need to be replaced with a duty to collaborate with others to reduce society’s overall carbon emissions. Those making policy and those implementing it will therefore need to understand and apply complexity theory, and will need highly developed skills in managing long-term collaborative projects rather than ‘delivering’ one-off changes. These attributes may be found in practitioners from diverse and less obvious fields, including the cultural sector