Contenu du sommaire : Usages de l'énergie dans l'habitat : la transition énergétique vue d'en bas

Rethinking lifestyles in the context of the energy transition
This paper presents a theoretical and empirical overhaul of the notion of lifestyles, and uses it as a framework of analysis of the issues the energy transition project is facing. It is argued here that the notion of lifestyles is often reduced, particularly in the energy transition project, to a single dimension of user behaviour and energy consumption, and thus excludes the material and normative frameworks that guide individual and collective practices. It is proposed instead to understand lifestyles as a set of devices which are at once material (living form, networks, technical objects ...) and ideational (representations, values ...), upon which social organization lies (housing, mobility, food, education ...) and through which « normality » is implicitly defined in the sense of customary uses and practices within society. Taking into account this approach to lifestyles can enable us to explore with greater precision how the shift towards a new energy system can be achieved.

The research domain aimed at theorizing a transformation to low energy use has suffered from weak representations of the social and material contributors to energy consumption. In the dominating theory that informs policy, consumption is theorized as an exercise done by sovereign individuals who deploy cognitive knowledge in economically rationale ways in order to achieve instrumental ends. Over the past decade, a number of social scientists from differing academic disciplines have contributed to the development and application of social practice theory to an understanding of everyday energy consumption. This theory has promise for renewing energy consumption theory and providing a basis for new directions in energy savings policy. This article lays out promising theoretical insights from social practice theory and give examples of new categories of polices for stimulating low-energy practices. Special attention is given to how practices form and change, as well as the relationship between practice transformations and experience-grounded learning.

How is thermal renovation work decided in co-owned apartment buildings ? A new form of organisation of living as a condition of energy innovationIn France, the thermal renovation of co-owned apartment buildings is a major challenge for the energy transition because of their sheer number and complexity. In 2010, a qualitative survey of early cases of thermal renovation highlighted not just a choice from technical and economic criteria but also a shift in the organization, which is a condition of innovation. Distancing the professional manager, a new set of actor relations arises through the emergence of an « energy leader » who promotes the active participation of the co-owners. This feeds in to a collective process of renovation which starts with preliminary steps such as co-management of collective heating and/or the co-production of an energy audit. The voting of renovation work is prepared beforehand by a thorough study of the project set-up. This includes the creation of informal communication circuits and financial ingenuity. Each technical solution involves specific appropriation work according to the constraints of the situation.

The determinants of domestic energy consumption
This article is situated within the context of the recommendations made by the Grenelle environment round table (Grenelle de l'Environnement) which highlighted the need to improve the thermal performance of housing in France by 2020. It aims to define the modalities through which the relations between citizens and energy are constructed and organised in housing in the Île-de-France region that is spatially contextualised (city centre, low rise suburban housing, social housing complexes, peri-urban sector, etc.) and architecturally differentiated (single family homes, multiple rented or co-owned central housing units, large linear and tower block complexes, etc.).The article is based on the hypothesis that the energy consumption of households in their homes reflects complex socio-spatial behaviour patterns. These behaviour patterns are examined from the point of view of the relationship to energy that inhabitants have at the scale of their homes, as well as by analysing their consumption practices within the urban context of the Ile-de-France region. The methodological approach is twofold :A socio-economic approach using quantitative methods based on the secondary analysis of national surveys (particularly the national housing survey), and an ad hoc survey that we carried out on 2000 Île-de-France households. A socio-technical approach comparing the subjective appreciation of energy consumption of households with their actual practices, based on semi-structured interviews with fifty-nine households. These approaches allow the construction of a typology of energy consumers which integrates residential practices and the technical performances of buildings on different scales.