posted on 2015-12-09, 14:43authored byCatherine Cherry, Christina Hopfe, Brian MacGillivray, Nick Pidgeon
Decarbonising housing is a key UK government policy to mitigate climate change. Using discourse analysis,
we assess how low carbon housing is portrayed within British broadsheet media. Three distinct storylines
were identified. Dominating the discourse, Zero carbon housing promotes new-build, low carbon houses as
offering high technology solutions to the climate problem. Retrofitting homes emphasises the need to reduce
emissions within existing housing, tackling both climate change and rising fuel prices. A more marginal
discourse, Sustainable living, frames low carbon houses as related to individual identities and ‘off-grid’ or
greener lifestyles. Our analysis demonstrates that technical and economic paradigms dominate media
discourse on low carbon housing, marginalising social and behavioural aspects.
Funding
This research was supported by a studentship from the Sustainable Places Research Institute at Cardiff
University.
History
School
Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering
Published in
Public Understanding of Science
Volume
24
Issue
3
Pages
302 - 310
Citation
CHERRY, C. ... et al, 2015. Media discourses of low carbon housing: the marginalisation of social and behavioural dimensions within the British broadsheet press. Public Understanding of Science, 24 (3), pp. 302 - 310.
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