Gaps, Barriers and Conceptual Chasms: Theories of Technology Transfer and Energy in Buildings

Panel: Panel 3: Market Transformation: Innovation, Development and Dissemination

Author:
Elizabeth Shove, University of Sunderland

Abstract

Analyses of the potential for energy conservation typically begin with estimates of technical opportunity. The first step is to assess energy savings which might be achieved by the adoption of economically worthwhile measures and technologies. Framed in these terms, the task is one of technology transfer: of closing the gap between current practice and recognised technical potential. The trouble is that the practical application of energy efficient technologies seems to be impeded by what are routinely referred to as ?non technical barriers?. The conventional view is thus one in which social obstacles inhibit the realisation of proven technical potential.

This familiar logic depends upon a strong conceptual distinction between the social, on the one hand, and the technical, on the other. But does it make sense to talk of technical potential in the abstract? If we question the notion of pure technical potential, we must also reconsider theories of technology transfer. Do people reahy have technologies ?transferred? upon them? Questions about the nature of technical change in turn lead us to review the conceptual status of the gaps and barriers which dominate discussion of energy efficiency.

Drawing upon ideas from the sociology of science and technology and on recent research funded by Britain?s Economic and Social Research Council, this paper unpacks conventional beliefs about the diffusion of energy efficient technologies and develops an alternative model which acknowledges the social structuring of technical innovation.