Commentary

摘要

We have followed with interest the debate in this journal between Shove (2010; 2011) and Whitmarsh and colleagues (2011) on contrasting theoretical approaches and representations of proenvironmental behaviour and social change, and of the potential, rationale, and merit of interdisciplinarity or integration. In this commentary we offer a pragmatic response to the issues being debated from the perspective of policy makers concerned with near-term reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. This response is informed by the recent experience of one of us (Chatterton) during a year-long Research Council UK (RCUK) Energy Programme Fellowship as a social scientist based in the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).