Godbolt, Karlstrøm & Sørensen: Constructing Consumers

ECEEE 02.06.2009

Constructing Consumers

Efforts to make governmentality through energy policy

Godbolt, Karlstrøm & Sørensen: Constructing Consumers

ECEEE 03.06.2009

Energy conservation and consumers – what can we learn from the Norwegian case?

• Markets, consumers and institutions are to some degree constructions

• These are malleable, and change over time• It is therefore important to study them

Godbolt, Karlstrøm & Sørensen: Constructing Consumers

ECEEE 03.06.2009

Theoretical perspectives

• Economic sociology (Callon, MacKenzie and others) teaches us that markets do not operate as value-free arenas of exchange: they are to some degree performed

• This means that the framing of markets is equally important to the market operations themselves

Godbolt, Karlstrøm & Sørensen: Constructing Consumers

ECEEE 03.06.2009

Theoretical perspectives

• To acheive the desired performance, market actors (consumers) must be constructed in a certain way

• This construction comes through the introduction of governmentalities (Foucault)

• A governmentality is a set of practices internalized by actors, but not necessarily chosen by them

Godbolt, Karlstrøm & Sørensen: Constructing Consumers

ECEEE 02.06.2009

Context: Norwegian energy conservation policy

• Energy conservation first an issue in the 70s

• Mainly based around voluntary measures

• In 1990, a new, market based sector reform

Godbolt, Karlstrøm & Sørensen: Constructing Consumers

ECEEE 02.06.2009

Research questions

• Conservation a concern, but consumption has increased steadily – why?

• Studying energy policy through consumer constructions may provide some insights

Godbolt, Karlstrøm & Sørensen: Constructing Consumers

ECEEE 02.06.2009

Data

• Government white papers 1975 - 2005• Parliamentary debates

Godbolt, Karlstrøm & Sørensen: Constructing Consumers

ECEEE 03.06.2009

Changing consumers I: 1975 - 1990

• Consumers barely present in official policy• If present at all, seen as economic actors in

line with industrial actors• At the same time, seen as wasteful (immoral)

and in need of guidance (irrational)• High consensus among policy makers

Godbolt, Karlstrøm & Sørensen: Constructing Consumers

ECEEE 03.06.2009

Changing consumers II: 1990 - 2005

• Large-scale reform with the founding of a new market for electricity

• Consumers less ambiguously constructed – rather pure, utility-maximizing rational actors

• However, still paradoxical: both prices and consumption to go down

• Highly controversial

Godbolt, Karlstrøm & Sørensen: Constructing Consumers

ECEEE 03.06.2009

Changing consumers III: 2005

• New focus on environmental issues means renewed interest in conservation

• A certain moral aspect is reintroduced• Still, consumers are considered less important• Consensus (more or less) reestablished

Godbolt, Karlstrøm & Sørensen: Constructing Consumers

ECEEE 03.06.2009

Why governmentality?

• Market framing and governmentality are useful tools for analyzing energy policy

• Policy documents’ expectations towards specific behaviour constitute a form of governmentality – the consumer is to act within the framework

• Ambiguous constructions of the consumer may produce ineffective or non-existent energy policy governmentalities

Godbolt, Karlstrøm & Sørensen: Constructing Consumers

ECEEE 03.06.2009

Conclusion

• The making of policy requires the construction of the actors involved - often, this is given little attention by policy makers

• This way, some constructions with serious implications are taken for granted

• A task for the social sciences must be to pay close attention to these processes, and open up the closed constructions for critical scrutiny

• Paying more attention to consumer constructions may result in better governmentalities for energy policy