A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Sustainability at Home: The Case of Vacuum Cleaners
Household practices are a microcosm that shows how we think about sus-tainability on an everyday basis. This study focuses on vacuuming, which is a household chore with similarities to routine work activities. The 24 partici-pants in the study merely considered sustainability a minor aspect in their decisions about which vacuum cleaner to buy. Brand, price, and suction power were top considerations. With respect to repair/replace decisions, par-ticipants tended to favor repair, that is, the more sustainable option. Howev-er, decisions to repair a vacuum cleaner that broke down were often on the condition that it could be done cheaply. In contrast, decisions to replace were never conditional. Finally, participants exhibited cross-country differences in the importance they attached to sustainability. These differences suggest that national discourses have the power to influence individual householders’ views on sustainability. ; Household practices are a microcosm that shows how we think about sustainability on an everyday basis. This study focuses on vacuuming, which is a household chore with similarities to routine work activities. The 24 participants in the study merely considered sustainability a minor aspect in their decisions about which vacuum cleaner to buy. Brand, price, and suction power were top considerations. With respect to repair/replace decisions, participants tended to favor repair, that is, the more sustainable option. However, decisions to repair a vacuum cleaner that broke down were often on the condition that it could be done cheaply. In contrast, decisions to replace were never conditional. Finally, participants exhibited cross-country differences in the importance they attached to sustainability. These differences suggest that national discourses have the power to influence individual householders’ views on sustainability.
Sustainability at Home: The Case of Vacuum Cleaners
Household practices are a microcosm that shows how we think about sus-tainability on an everyday basis. This study focuses on vacuuming, which is a household chore with similarities to routine work activities. The 24 partici-pants in the study merely considered sustainability a minor aspect in their decisions about which vacuum cleaner to buy. Brand, price, and suction power were top considerations. With respect to repair/replace decisions, par-ticipants tended to favor repair, that is, the more sustainable option. Howev-er, decisions to repair a vacuum cleaner that broke down were often on the condition that it could be done cheaply. In contrast, decisions to replace were never conditional. Finally, participants exhibited cross-country differences in the importance they attached to sustainability. These differences suggest that national discourses have the power to influence individual householders’ views on sustainability. ; Household practices are a microcosm that shows how we think about sustainability on an everyday basis. This study focuses on vacuuming, which is a household chore with similarities to routine work activities. The 24 participants in the study merely considered sustainability a minor aspect in their decisions about which vacuum cleaner to buy. Brand, price, and suction power were top considerations. With respect to repair/replace decisions, participants tended to favor repair, that is, the more sustainable option. However, decisions to repair a vacuum cleaner that broke down were often on the condition that it could be done cheaply. In contrast, decisions to replace were never conditional. Finally, participants exhibited cross-country differences in the importance they attached to sustainability. These differences suggest that national discourses have the power to influence individual householders’ views on sustainability.
Sustainability at Home: The Case of Vacuum Cleaners
Hertzum, Morten (author)
2023-01-01
Hertzum , M 2023 , ' Sustainability at Home: The Case of Vacuum Cleaners ' , Paper presented at SHWID Workshop on Sustainable Human-Work Interaction De- signs , York , United Kingdom , 29/08/2023 - 29/08/2023 .
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
DDC:
690
Comparison of Aerosol Emission from 38 Vacuum Cleaners
| British Library Conference Proceedings | 1997