Professor Elizabeth Shove, Department of Sociology at Lancaster University, UK

Elizabeth Shove B.A. Sociology, University of York D.Phil, Sociology, University of York Professor of Sociology Sociology Department Room B09 Bowland North Lancaster University Lancaster, LA1 4YT, UK Tel: +44 1524 594610 Fax: +44 1524 594256 E-mail: e.shove@lancaster.ac.uk		I came to Lancaster in 1995 as deputy director of the Centre for the Study of Environmental Change and was director of the Centre for Science Studies for a couple of years before joining the Sociology Department in 2000. My current research interests have to do with the relation between consumption, everyday practice and ordinary technology. Many of the projects described below explore these themes. This web site includes details of: research projects books and publications teaching and PhD students
Research projects
	Transitions in practice: climate change and everyday life In October 2008 I began a 3 year ESRC funded climate change leadership fellowship addressing the need for new ways of framing problems of climate change, consumption and demand. Transitions in Practice: ESRC Climate Change Leadership Fellowship Social change climate change working party
	Designing and Consuming: objects, practices and processes, with Matt Watson at Durham University and Jack Ingram at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, exploits the potential for theoretical development at the interface of science and technology studies, design and the sociology of consumption. This project was funded by the ESRC’s Cultures of Consumption programme) and resulted in the book, 'The design of everyday life' published by Berg. Cultures of consumption programme A description of the project The Design of Everyday Life - book based on the project
The choreography of everyday life: towards an integrative theory of practice	The choreography of everyday life ‘This is a collaborative project with Mika Pantzar at the National Consumer Research Centre, Helsinki, Finland. We are writing about a range of different topics - Nordic Walking, Kitchen rationalisation, Floorball, Plastic, Heart Rate Meters and more - as part of an ambitious attempt to construct an 'integrative' theory of practice. The link will take you to a series of web pages outlining our ideas to date. ’
Interactive Agenda Setting in the Social Sciences	Interactive Agenda Setting in the Social Sciences: A programme of six research workshops on non-academic concerns and academic research agendas. This series is funded by the ESRC. The web site includes background papers and reports on interactive agenda setting and: disciplines, centres, interdisciplinarity and research programmes.
Traces of Water	’'Traces of Water', with Will Medd, is funded by the UK Water Industry Research Association. This project brings sociological ideas about practice and technology to bear on domestic water consumption.The web site includes details of a programme of research workshops.
Manufacturing Leisure	‘Manufacturing Leisure’ (2005), NCRC: Helsinki. This electronic book, edited with Mika Pantzar, examines different innovations in fun. Together, the chapters show how consumers and producers are continuously and actively involved in integrating, inventing and reproducing specific combinations of ideologies, materials and forms of competence of which leisure practices are formed.
Future Comforts	'Future Comforts', with Heather Chappells, examined future expectations of comfort and the indoor environment (funded by the ESRC's Environment and Behaviour Programme.). The future comforts web site includes a selection of papers and a bibliography of social scientific work on thermal comfort. Comfort in a Low Carbon Society: 2008 Special issue of Building Resesarch and Information, Vol 36, No 4, edited by Elizabeth Shove, Heather Chappells and Loren Lutzenhiser. Network for Comfort and Energy Use in Buildings An EPSRC-funded network of researchers, consultancies, designers and manufacturers concerned with building-related energy issues and the requirements for human thermal comfort.
Sustainable Domestic Technologies	'Sustainable Domestic Technologies'with Alan Warde and Dale Southerton at Manchester University, is about the design and use of kitchens and bathrooms and is funded by the ESRC's Sustainable Technologies Programme. description of the project kitchens and bathrooms conference and papers
TOP-IX Seminars	Theories of practice: an interdisciplinary exchange: A series of seminars between marketing, geography and sociology
Books and publications
Elizabeth Shove, Frank Trentmann and Rick Wilk (eds) (2009) Time, Consumption and Everyday Life, Oxford, Berg. Elizabeth Shove, Heather Chappells and Loren Lutzenhiser (eds) (2009) Comfort in a Lower Carbon Society London, Routledge. Elizabeth Shove, Matt Watson, Martin Hand and Jack Ingram (2007) The Design of Everyday Life Oxford: Berg. Bas van Vliet, Heather Chappells and Elizabeth Shove, 2005, Infrastructures of Consumption, London: Earthscan. Elizabeth Shove, 2003, Comfort, Cleanliness and Convenience, Oxford: Berg. CV and recent publications

Teaching
I usually teach a third year course on "Technologies and Practices of Everyday Life", and an MA Module in which students undertake a small-scale research project from start to finish during the course of the term. This course, "Research Projects in Practice: From Design to Dissemination" is also available through the Faculty Research Training Programme.
Current PhD Students
Sam Brown, co supervised with Gordon Walker and Will Medd in Geography. Sam is working on vulnerability to heatwaves especially amongst elderly people living in residential homes. Shireen Chilcott: co supervised with Sylvia Walby. Shireen's project is on gender and job segregation in the construction industry. Yi-Ping Cheng: co supervised with Tim Dant. Yi-Ping's project deals with the Taiwanese housewares industry - focusing on the relation between consumers, producers and retailers Allison Hui: co supervised with John Urry. Allison's project is on Enthusiastic Travel: Crafting the mobilities and travelling practices of enthusiasts and enthusiasms Julien McHardy: Julien has an ESRC CASE studentship with IDEO - his project deals with ideas of 'use' and the 'user' especially in relation to innovation for sustainability and electric bikes. Nicola Spurling, co supervised with Andrew Sayer. Nicola is looking at the relation between higher education policy and the working lives, practices and careers of academic Sociologists. James Tomasson, co supervised with John Urry. James is looking at the material culture of tradition and nostalgia and at the complexity of apparently simple items like wooden flooring and the Aga. Maarten van der Kamp, co supervised with Martin Brigham in the Management School. Maarten is working on issues of corporate responsibility and how these are embodied and made real in organic food standards.
Previous projects
Consumption, everyday life and sustainability Having led a five-year programme of workshops, exchanges and summer schools on Consumption, Everyday Life and Sustainability consumption, everyday life and sustainability" (funded by the European Science Foundation) I took advantage of a Leverhulme research fellowship to focus on the dynamics of 'ordinary' consumption. Comfort, Cleanliness and Convenience: The Social Organization of Normality (2003) Oxford: Berg, makes use of ideas from the sociology of consumption and science and technology studies in looking at the evolution of conventions and practices. Energy, buildings and the environment I’ve been responsible for a number of projects that have brought a sociological perspective to bear upon issues relating to the built environment and the construction industry. A Sociology of Energy, Buildings and the Environment (2000), London: Routledge, written with Simon Guy, drew upon much of this work and on research funded through the ESRC's Global Environmental Change Programme. Innovation, organisation and technology Projects funded by the ESRC, the EPSRC, and the (then) Department of Environment have examined different aspects of the management and co-ordination of construction. Specific studies have focused on cavity wall insulation, cladding, concrete, organising change in construction, supply chain management, and most recently, standardisation in building services. These projects detail inter-organisational relations and their implications for innovation and technological development. Infrastructures and systems in transition Some of my research on the social and technical development of complex systems and networks has been about the management of technological development (SOCROBUST). Other projects (DOMUS) have examined changing relations between the consumers and providers of water and electricity services. Recent work on mobility and social exclusion explores similar issues (CHIME), but with respect to systems and infrastructures of transport. I have served as a 'special advisor' to Transport for London on monitoring the social impact of congestion charging. The common thread here has to do with the intersection of social and technical systems and the dynamics of sociotechnical change. Research and science policy I have maintained an interest in research and science policy and especially in the uses of social science. This has taken various forms. Social Environmental Research in the European Union: Research networks and new agendas, (2000) Cheltenham: Elgar, with Michael Redclift, Barend van der Meulen and Sujatha Raman, was the result of an EU funded project examining the "making" of European social environmental research. Other work, including several studies for the ESRC, has focused on the concept of the "user" and on the idea of "interactive" social science. View on-line papers by author View on-line papers by topic