Work

Low carbon heating transitions and Actor Network Theory: Entanglements with the fireside

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: We share findings from 30 oral histories of home heating (1945 to present) gathered in the former coal mining town of Rotherham in Northern England. By analysing these rich personal accounts using Actor Network Theory (ANT), we reveal the coal fire (or coal-fired range) as a powerful actant shaping domestic life in the decades following the end of the Second World War. This exposes important, previously unacknowledged, relational-material entanglements with the fireside, which endure despite many decades of gas central heating in the UK. The nature and strength of these entanglements have implications for the socially and culturally sensitive handling of efforts (across Europe) to transition households to more technological low carbon heating systems, such as heat pumps. This paper sets out early findings from the UK component of a Europe-wide project which innovatively seeks to establish a social and cultural history of home heating in order to distil lessons for a more socially and culturally conscious transition to low carbon heating systems.

Source: Energy Research & Social Science

DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.104140

Authors: Aimee Ambrose, Kathy Davies, Lindsey McCarthy, Becky Shaw, Sally Shahzad

Institutions: Sheffield Hallam University, Birmingham City University, University of Leeds

Language: English

Topic: Sustainability and Climate Change Governance

Subfield: Global and Planetary Change

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Climate action, Affordable and clean energy

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,450