Inequality and Energy: How Extremes of Wealth and Poverty in High Income Countries Affect CO2 Emissions and Access to Energy challenges energy consumption researchers in developed countries to reorient their research frameworks to include the effects of economic inequality within the scope of their investigations, and calls for a new set of paradigms for energy consumption research. The book explores concrete examples of energy deprivation due to inequality, and provides conceptual tools to explore this in relation to other issues regarding energy consumption. It thereby urges that energy consumption approaches be updated for a world of increasing inequality.
Extreme economic inequality has increased within developed countries over the past three decades. The effects of inequality are now seen increasingly in health, housing affordability, crime and social cohesion. There are signs it may even threaten democracy. Researchers are also exploring its effects on energy consumption. One of their key findings is that less privileged groups have lost consistent access to basic energy services like warm homes and affordable transport, leading to huge disparities of climate damaging emissions between rich and poor.
1. Introduction - p. xv 2. Part 1: Theory and concepts: Bringing economic inequality into energy research - p. xxv 3. Chapter 1: Recent increases in inequality in developed countries - p. xxv 4. Chapter 2: What is money? And why it matters for social science in energy research - p. 30 5. Chapter 3: Asymmetric structuration theory: A sociology for an epoch of extreme economic inequality - p. 51 6. Chapter 4: Economic inequality, energy justice and the meaning of life - p. 74 7. Part 2: Empirical findings: Energy and economic inequality in practice - p. 96 8. Chapter 5: Energy poverty: Understanding and addressing systemic inequalities - p. 96 9. Chapter 6: Housing tenure and thermal quality of homes—How home ownership affects access to energy services - p. 114 10. Chapter 7: Cold homes and Gini coefficients in EU countries - p. 143 11. Chapter 8: Why are women always cold? Gendered realities of energy injustice - p. 171 12. Chapter 9: Inequality and renewable electricity support in the European Union - p. 188 13. Chapter 10: Energy poverty research: A perspective from the poverty side - p. 220 14. Part 3: Reflections - p. 248 15. Chapter 11: Sustainable energy transition and increasing complexity: Trade-offs, the economics perspective and policy implications - p. 248 16. Chapter 12: Can economic inequality be reduced? Challenges and signs of hope in 2019 - p. 286 17. Concluding remarks - p. 311 18. Author index - p. 317 19. Subject index - p. 327
Inequality and Energy: How Extremes of Wealth and Poverty in High Income Countries Affect CO2 Emissions and Access to Energy challenges energy consumption researchers in developed countries to reorient their research frameworks to include the effects of economic inequality within the scope of their investigations, and calls for a new set of paradigms for energy consumption research. The book explores concrete examples of energy deprivation due to inequality, and provides conceptual tools to explore this in relation to other issues regarding energy consumption. It thereby urges that energy consumption approaches be updated for a world of increasing inequality.
Extreme economic inequality has increased within developed countries over the past three decades. The effects of inequality are now seen increasingly in health, housing affordability, crime and social cohesion. There are signs it may even threaten democracy. Researchers are also exploring its effects on energy consumption. One of their key findings is that less privileged groups have lost consistent access to basic energy services like warm homes and affordable transport, leading to huge disparities of climate damaging emissions between rich and poor.
1. Introduction - p. xv 2. Part 1: Theory and concepts: Bringing economic inequality into energy research - p. xxv 3. Chapter 1: Recent increases in inequality in developed countries - p. xxv 4. Chapter 2: What is money? And why it matters for social science in energy research - p. 30 5. Chapter 3: Asymmetric structuration theory: A sociology for an epoch of extreme economic inequality - p. 51 6. Chapter 4: Economic inequality, energy justice and the meaning of life - p. 74 7. Part 2: Empirical findings: Energy and economic inequality in practice - p. 96 8. Chapter 5: Energy poverty: Understanding and addressing systemic inequalities - p. 96 9. Chapter 6: Housing tenure and thermal quality of homes—How home ownership affects access to energy services - p. 114 10. Chapter 7: Cold homes and Gini coefficients in EU countries - p. 143 11. Chapter 8: Why are women always cold? Gendered realities of energy injustice - p. 171 12. Chapter 9: Inequality and renewable electricity support in the European Union - p. 188 13. Chapter 10: Energy poverty research: A perspective from the poverty side - p. 220 14. Part 3: Reflections - p. 248 15. Chapter 11: Sustainable energy transition and increasing complexity: Trade-offs, the economics perspective and policy implications - p. 248 16. Chapter 12: Can economic inequality be reduced? Challenges and signs of hope in 2019 - p. 286 17. Concluding remarks - p. 311 18. Author index - p. 317 19. Subject index - p. 327
