Capturing the consumption of distance? A practice-theoretical investigation of everyday travel

This article contributes to current debates on (un)sustainable mobility by re-conceptualising everyday travel as a set of consumption practices. Treating physical mobility as consumption of distance' with considerable social, ecological and economic consequences, the article's theoretical focus moves beyond conventional approaches that have hitherto dominated transport research and policy in Europe and beyond. In addition, it demonstrates how a carefully operationalised practice-theoretical approach can shed new light on the social and material contingency of human (travel) behaviour. By transforming qualitative evidence from Ireland into an innovative typology of commuting practices, this article captures the importance of intermeshing social and material contexts for people's everyday consumption of distance. Overall, we seek to add to the already significant body of literature that evaluates the suitability of practice-theoretical core concepts to the empirical study of everyday life

From invisibility to impact: radically different measures are needed to capture the true impact of research

Academics are increasingly expected to produce directly applicable solutions to hard-to-solve "real-world" problems such as poverty, development, and environmental degradation. However, conventional assessments of science have not yet been adequately adapted to capture the diverse effects of this type of problem-centred research. Examining a prominent recent example of multidisciplinary research on consumption, environment and sustainability in Ireland, Henrike Rau, Gary Goggins and Frances Fahy show how certain narrowly defined measures of scientific relevance can fail to capture the actual impact of research

February 13, 1979

The Breeze is the student newspaper of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia

Challenging Practices : Experiences from community and individual living lab approaches

Peer reviewe

Comprehensive Open Access Dataset of Sustainable Energy Consumption Initiatives (SECIs) : Deliverable 2.3

This document (ENERGISE D2.3) provides a background report on the process and result of developing and constructing a comprehensive open access dataset of sustainable energy consumption initiatives (SECIs) that have been collected and assessed as part of Work Package 2 (WP2) in ENERGISE. The dataset is designed as a map that is intended to be a user-friendly device that provides an overview of sustainable energy consumption initiatives (SECIs) in Europe. In particular, the map shows the variety in scope, content and approach in the identified SECIs