Energy Inputs and Household Behaviour in France

Monnier, E. (1983). Energy inputs and household behaviour in France. Journal of Economic Psychology, 4, (1-2), 197-207.

Determined the relations between contemporary life-styles in France and the total consumption of energy by considering both the energy directly consumed within the home and that which enters the house through manufactured goods. 54 30-45 yr olds served as Ss. Results show that the balance between these 2 forms of energy consumption has changed continuously over the past 20 yrs. People living in apparently similar conditions may have quite different behavior patterns because significant cultural and symbolic dimensions are superimposed onto the factual reality. Modes of energy consumption are generated in a dynamic procedure in which the current social position of the household is a determining factor, but it also depends on past experience and on future expectations or goals. It is concluded that understanding the energy dependence of different life-styles, or the capacity of households to modify their energy consumption, must be based on the analysis of the specific social and residential trajectories of each sociocultural group. (6 ref)

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