Gert Spaargaren
Biographic Data
| ID | 193599 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gert Spaargaren |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gert |
| FAMILY NAME | Spaargaren |
| SIGNATURE | SPAARGAREN G |
| AFFILIATIONS | Wageningen University & Research |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5688-144X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 34 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 495 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 31 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 3 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
The Ecological Modernisation Reader
Environmental reform by (inter)governmental agencies, private firms and industries and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is a worldwide phenomenon. This definitive collection showcases an introduction to Ecological Modernisation Theory; state-of-the-art review essays by key international scholars and a selection of the key articles from a quarter-century of social science scholarship. It is aimed at students, researchers and policymakers inte…
Responses of Indonesian tuna processing companies to enhanced public and private traceability
Seafood is increasingly subject to traceability requirements set by importing countries and global buyers. These demands place significant pressure on value chain actors to change seafood production and trade practices to align to the standardized norms around legality and food safety. While processing companies are recognized as critical players in facilitating access to global markets there is currently a lack of understanding about how they re…
Ecological Modernisation Reader
What could go wrong with cooking? Exploring vulnerability at the water, energy and food Nexus in Kampala through a social practices lens
Fisher and Trader Responses to Traceability Interventions in Indonesia
Calls for increased traceability of seafood have been frustrated by a poor understanding of the social dynamics shaping the flow of fish and information in global value chains. Contrasting with utilitarian and regulatory approaches, this article proposes a social practices intervention framework to understand the effect of traceability interventions ensuing from the EU IUU regulation and Fair Trade USA seafood certification program on fishers and…
Political Consumerism and the Social-Practice Perspective
Social practice approaches, developed in sociology, contribute to the study of political consumerism by moving away from individual accounts of political consumerism and towards the study of everyday practices and their changes. This chapter presents the main conceptual tools and empirical orientations and connects these with political consumerism thinking. This leads to a focus on social practices, the embeddedness of different social practices,…
Energy Efficient Housing through Organized Interactions? Conceptualizing the Roles of Householders and Providers in Housing Retrofitting in the Netherlands and China
Energy saving is an explicit goal of housing retrofitting in both the Netherlands and China. Retrofit providers expect to achieve this goal by applying insulation to apartment buildings and improvements in heating, cooling and ventilation. The aim of this paper is to explore both conceptually and empirically the interactions between householders and retrofit providers. Interaction activities are conceptualized in a framework of overlapping practi…
Practice Theories
Practice theories perceive social life as practical activity. Social practices can be described as routinized behavior which integrates elements such as bodily know‐how, material objects, technology, understandings, and emotions. Practice theories focus on how such elements are interwoven through human activity. They acknowledge the coconstituting role of material objects and emphasize practical intelligibility, the embodied ways in which people …
Structural conditions for and against sustainable ways of consuming
This chapter explains the stock of social scientific research on consumption that involves the utilization of what we call infrastructures of consumption. It also focuses on research that uses Social Practice Theory as a lens to study the dynamic relationships between conduct, meaning and systems of water and energy provision. The chapter then illustrates the dynamics in practices of toilet use and medicine use in an experimental case study invol…
When social practices meet smart grids
This article seeks to analyse recent shifts in goals concerning domestic energy uses. Drawing on two Dutch smart grid projects, we observe that in the smart grid transition the balancing of (renewable) supply and demand in energy grids becomes the key priority of grid managers. This shift becomes translated at the household level through so called ‘teleoaffective structures’ of energy practices which motivate and direct the behaviour of household…
The relevance of practice theories for tourism research
Practice Theory and Research
Emotional agency navigates a world of practices
The past two decades witnessed a prolific revival of practice theories. Sociologists and social philosophers such as Davide Nicolini (2012), Andreas Reckwitz (2002), Theodore Schatzki (1996, 2002, 2010; Schatzki, Knorr Cetina and Von Savigny, 2001), Robert Schmidt (2012) and Elizabeth Shove and collaborators (2003, 2012) have elaborated, deepened and refined practice theories that were developed in sociology in the 1970s and 1980s by Pierre Bourd…
Ecological modernization theory
Shifting configurations of shopping practices and food safety dynamics in Hanoi, Vietnam
This paper offers a historical analysis of contemporary practices of shopping for vegetables in the highly dynamic context of urban Hanoi during the period from 1975 to 2014. Focusing on everyday shopping practices from a food safety perspective, we assess the extent to which the policy-enforced process of supermarketization has proven to be an engine of change in daily vegetable purchasing while improving food safety. In depicting transitions in…
Greening consumption at the retail outlet
Over the decades, the Thai appliance industry has developed into a strong and export-oriented industry with rigorous strategies to improve the environmental performance of products and production. Leading producers have recently begun to develop greening strategies targeting the consumption behavior of consumers, materialized through the provision of green appliances, environmental information, and sustainable images and storylines. However, comm…
Low carbon rural housing provision in China
Food safety in everyday life
Consumer Responses to the Carbon Labelling of Food
The emerging debate on the climate impact of food is expected to result in the carbon labelling of food in the future. As yet, consumer responses to carbon labels are not well researched. A real life experiment was developed to study consumer responses to new carbon labels for food. A ‘light’ and a ‘comprehensive’ carbon labelling regime were stepwise introduced into the food practice of ‘having lunch in a canteen’. The resulting shifts in the be…
Carbon flows, carbon markets, and low-carbon lifestyles
The role of carbon markets in governing global carbon flows triggers substantial debates among policymakers, social movements and social scientists. The present debate on carbon markets is different from the earlier debate on market-based instruments in environmental politics. Carbon markets represent both more radical and more risky forms of governing global carbon flows, as illustrated by an analysis of both regulatory and voluntary carbon mark…
Theories of practices
Organising consumer involvement in the greening of global food flows
Consumers are increasingly concerned about the impacts of global food provision, but especially in the case of marine fish, their unease is complex, locally specific and still evolving. Responding to these apprehensions solely by promoting short local supply chains is restricted to niche markets and leaves other opportunities for increasing sustainability untouched. Additional, complementary strategies for the greening of food supply chains are e…
Social Perspectives on the Sanitation Challenge
Greening global consumption
Governing Environmental Flows
Globalization and the changing role of the nation-state calls for new approaches to environmental governance and new ways to conceptualize it. Recent developments in sociology—seen in the work of John Urry, Manuel Castells, and others—shows how social theory can be made less static, more fluid, and more directed toward flow and networks in order to encompass today's reality. Governing Environmental Flows explores what such a reformulation means f…
Sociology, environment, and modernity
To minimize or at least substantially reduce damage to the natural resource sustenance‐base we urgently need institutional reform within modern society. Environmental sociologists have different views as to which institutional traits can be held primarily responsible for the environmental crisis. Examples include its capitalistic or industrial character as well as the complex, highly administrated technological system of modern society. We discus…
Theories of practices
Sustainable Consumption
This chapter makes the central argument that environmental sociologists need to conceptualize sustainable consumption behavior, life spies, and daily routines in such a way as to avoid the pitfalls of many of the so called micro-approaches that have been developed to date. It uses the social practices model to analyze the process of diflusion of environmental innovations in utility sectors, and to discuss the emergence of a variety of lifestyles …
The relevance of practice theories for tourism research
Environment, Modernity and the Risk-Society
The apocalyptic dimension of the ecological situation seems to emerge in the present-day environmental debate. But in contrast to the early seventies, eco-alarmism in its present form seems to reflect growing uncertainties and anxieties related to the changing character of late modern society. Such uncertainties and anxieties do not only pertain to high-consequence risks, as exemplified by the Chernobyl accident, but also to local problems of pro…
Greening global consumption
When social practices meet smart grids
This article seeks to analyse recent shifts in goals concerning domestic energy uses. Drawing on two Dutch smart grid projects, we observe that in the smart grid transition the balancing of (renewable) supply and demand in energy grids becomes the key priority of grid managers. This shift becomes translated at the household level through so called ‘teleoaffective structures’ of energy practices which motivate and direct the behaviour of household…
Lifestyles, consumption and the environment
Ecological modernisation theory has been developed so far mainly with respect to the production sphere. In order to apply the theory to the sphere of consumption, it needs to be enriched with some of the central concepts from the sociology of consumption. What results is a contextual model of (domestic) consumption which combines an actor‐oriented approach with a system‐of‐provision perspective of consumer behaviour. In conclusion, the relevance …
Food safety in everyday life
Consumer Responses to the Carbon Labelling of Food
The emerging debate on the climate impact of food is expected to result in the carbon labelling of food in the future. As yet, consumer responses to carbon labels are not well researched. A real life experiment was developed to study consumer responses to new carbon labels for food. A ‘light’ and a ‘comprehensive’ carbon labelling regime were stepwise introduced into the food practice of ‘having lunch in a canteen’. The resulting shifts in the be…
Carbon flows, carbon markets, and low-carbon lifestyles
The role of carbon markets in governing global carbon flows triggers substantial debates among policymakers, social movements and social scientists. The present debate on carbon markets is different from the earlier debate on market-based instruments in environmental politics. Carbon markets represent both more radical and more risky forms of governing global carbon flows, as illustrated by an analysis of both regulatory and voluntary carbon mark…
Ecological Modernization and Consumption
This contribution balances Carolan's claim that ecological modernization perspectives fall short in adequately dealing with consumption, by referring to four major points. First, Carolan misinterprets ecological modernization where he claims that this perspective only argues for more production (and consumption). Second, Carolan is wrong in stating that ecological modernization has basically neglected issues of consumption as it has been part and…
Shifting configurations of shopping practices and food safety dynamics in Hanoi, Vietnam
This paper offers a historical analysis of contemporary practices of shopping for vegetables in the highly dynamic context of urban Hanoi during the period from 1975 to 2014. Focusing on everyday shopping practices from a food safety perspective, we assess the extent to which the policy-enforced process of supermarketization has proven to be an engine of change in daily vegetable purchasing while improving food safety. In depicting transitions in…
What could go wrong with cooking? Exploring vulnerability at the water, energy and food Nexus in Kampala through a social practices lens
Low carbon rural housing provision in China
Organising consumer involvement in the greening of global food flows
Consumers are increasingly concerned about the impacts of global food provision, but especially in the case of marine fish, their unease is complex, locally specific and still evolving. Responding to these apprehensions solely by promoting short local supply chains is restricted to niche markets and leaves other opportunities for increasing sustainability untouched. Additional, complementary strategies for the greening of food supply chains are e…
Fisher and Trader Responses to Traceability Interventions in Indonesia
Calls for increased traceability of seafood have been frustrated by a poor understanding of the social dynamics shaping the flow of fish and information in global value chains. Contrasting with utilitarian and regulatory approaches, this article proposes a social practices intervention framework to understand the effect of traceability interventions ensuing from the EU IUU regulation and Fair Trade USA seafood certification program on fishers and…
Energy Efficient Housing through Organized Interactions? Conceptualizing the Roles of Householders and Providers in Housing Retrofitting in the Netherlands and China
Energy saving is an explicit goal of housing retrofitting in both the Netherlands and China. Retrofit providers expect to achieve this goal by applying insulation to apartment buildings and improvements in heating, cooling and ventilation. The aim of this paper is to explore both conceptually and empirically the interactions between householders and retrofit providers. Interaction activities are conceptualized in a framework of overlapping practi…
Sociology, environment, and modernity
To minimize or at least substantially reduce damage to the natural resource sustenance‐base we urgently need institutional reform within modern society. Environmental sociologists have different views as to which institutional traits can be held primarily responsible for the environmental crisis. Examples include its capitalistic or industrial character as well as the complex, highly administrated technological system of modern society. We discus…
Environment, Modernity and the Risk-Society
The apocalyptic dimension of the ecological situation seems to emerge in the present-day environmental debate. But in contrast to the early seventies, eco-alarmism in its present form seems to reflect growing uncertainties and anxieties related to the changing character of late modern society. Such uncertainties and anxieties do not only pertain to high-consequence risks, as exemplified by the Chernobyl accident, but also to local problems of pro…
Environment and Global Modernity
Taking a global perspective, this book argues that we can only make sense of environmental issues if we consider them as part of a more encompassing process of social transformation
Ecological modernisation theory in debate
Ecological Modernisation Theory has been faced with various challenges from different theoretical perspectives throughout the years. This contribution reviews the various debates ecological modernisation ideas have been engaged in. The article starts with a historical perspective on some of the earlier debates that paralleled Ecological Modernisation from its birth in the early 1980s to its maturation. These initial debates with earlier neo‐Marxi…
Lifestyles, consumption and the environment
Ecological modernisation theory has been developed so far mainly with respect to the production sphere. In order to apply the theory to the sphere of consumption, it needs to be enriched with some of the central concepts from the sociology of consumption. What results is a contextual model of (domestic) consumption which combines an actor‐oriented approach with a system‐of‐provision perspective of consumer behaviour. In conclusion, the relevance …
Sustainable Consumption
This chapter makes the central argument that environmental sociologists need to conceptualize sustainable consumption behavior, life spies, and daily routines in such a way as to avoid the pitfalls of many of the so called micro-approaches that have been developed to date. It uses the social practices model to analyze the process of diflusion of environmental innovations in utility sectors, and to discuss the emergence of a variety of lifestyles …
Ecological Modernization and Consumption
This contribution balances Carolan's claim that ecological modernization perspectives fall short in adequately dealing with consumption, by referring to four major points. First, Carolan misinterprets ecological modernization where he claims that this perspective only argues for more production (and consumption). Second, Carolan is wrong in stating that ecological modernization has basically neglected issues of consumption as it has been part and…
From Additions and Withdrawals to Environmental Flows
Sociology is known for its academic debates. These debates are vehicles to accumulate understanding and interpretation of a constantly changing modern order. In the environmental social sciences, one of the axes of debate recently centered between Treadmill of Production ideas and Ecological Modernization perspectives. This article reviews the nature of that debate and aims to move beyond it. In using the sociology of networks and flows, the futu…
Governing Environmental Flows
Globalization and the changing role of the nation-state calls for new approaches to environmental governance and new ways to conceptualize it. Recent developments in sociology—seen in the work of John Urry, Manuel Castells, and others—shows how social theory can be made less static, more fluid, and more directed toward flow and networks in order to encompass today's reality. Governing Environmental Flows explores what such a reformulation means f…
Toward a Sociology of Environmental Flows
The emerging sociology of networks and flows, as it can be found in the works of Castells and Urry among others, offers promising perspectives for environmental sociology in rethinking its principle object of study: nature and environment. The sociology of flow perspective takes us beyond the nation-state, helps us to rethink global dynamics, puts an emphasis on the `material dimension¿ of the social and provides new insights into issues of equal…
Greening global consumption
Social Perspectives on the Sanitation Challenge
Theories of practices
Organising consumer involvement in the greening of global food flows
Consumers are increasingly concerned about the impacts of global food provision, but especially in the case of marine fish, their unease is complex, locally specific and still evolving. Responding to these apprehensions solely by promoting short local supply chains is restricted to niche markets and leaves other opportunities for increasing sustainability untouched. Additional, complementary strategies for the greening of food supply chains are e…
Consumer Responses to the Carbon Labelling of Food
The emerging debate on the climate impact of food is expected to result in the carbon labelling of food in the future. As yet, consumer responses to carbon labels are not well researched. A real life experiment was developed to study consumer responses to new carbon labels for food. A ‘light’ and a ‘comprehensive’ carbon labelling regime were stepwise introduced into the food practice of ‘having lunch in a canteen’. The resulting shifts in the be…
Carbon flows, carbon markets, and low-carbon lifestyles
The role of carbon markets in governing global carbon flows triggers substantial debates among policymakers, social movements and social scientists. The present debate on carbon markets is different from the earlier debate on market-based instruments in environmental politics. Carbon markets represent both more radical and more risky forms of governing global carbon flows, as illustrated by an analysis of both regulatory and voluntary carbon mark…
Greening consumption at the retail outlet
Over the decades, the Thai appliance industry has developed into a strong and export-oriented industry with rigorous strategies to improve the environmental performance of products and production. Leading producers have recently begun to develop greening strategies targeting the consumption behavior of consumers, materialized through the provision of green appliances, environmental information, and sustainable images and storylines. However, comm…
Low carbon rural housing provision in China
Food safety in everyday life
Ecological modernization theory
Shifting configurations of shopping practices and food safety dynamics in Hanoi, Vietnam
This paper offers a historical analysis of contemporary practices of shopping for vegetables in the highly dynamic context of urban Hanoi during the period from 1975 to 2014. Focusing on everyday shopping practices from a food safety perspective, we assess the extent to which the policy-enforced process of supermarketization has proven to be an engine of change in daily vegetable purchasing while improving food safety. In depicting transitions in…
Practice Theory and Research
Emotional agency navigates a world of practices
The past two decades witnessed a prolific revival of practice theories. Sociologists and social philosophers such as Davide Nicolini (2012), Andreas Reckwitz (2002), Theodore Schatzki (1996, 2002, 2010; Schatzki, Knorr Cetina and Von Savigny, 2001), Robert Schmidt (2012) and Elizabeth Shove and collaborators (2003, 2012) have elaborated, deepened and refined practice theories that were developed in sociology in the 1970s and 1980s by Pierre Bourd…
Structural conditions for and against sustainable ways of consuming
This chapter explains the stock of social scientific research on consumption that involves the utilization of what we call infrastructures of consumption. It also focuses on research that uses Social Practice Theory as a lens to study the dynamic relationships between conduct, meaning and systems of water and energy provision. The chapter then illustrates the dynamics in practices of toilet use and medicine use in an experimental case study invol…
When social practices meet smart grids
This article seeks to analyse recent shifts in goals concerning domestic energy uses. Drawing on two Dutch smart grid projects, we observe that in the smart grid transition the balancing of (renewable) supply and demand in energy grids becomes the key priority of grid managers. This shift becomes translated at the household level through so called ‘teleoaffective structures’ of energy practices which motivate and direct the behaviour of household…
Sociology (21 works) · Economics (20 works) · Political science (19 works) · Social science (17 works) · Business (14 works) · Ecology (11 works) · Modernization theory (10 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Consumption (sociology (8 works) · Ecological modernization (8 works)