Cleanliness and consumption: exploring material and social structuring of domestic cleaning practices

Abstract

In line with increasing international trends of energy efficient devices on the market and in households, domestic consumption of water and energy should be decreasing. However in Sweden, domestic per capita water consumption is not decreasing rapidly and energy consumption is actually increasing. This suggests that physical contexts are not the only factor shaping resource demand. People are also influenced by collective conventions; what we think is normal has a significant say in what we do, and the resources we consume in the course of everyday life. This paper explores the way context shapes what people do from both a material infrastructures and social infrastructures perspective, using cleanliness in Sweden as a case study. First, material infrastructures in Sweden are mapped, including device ownership, water, energy and time consumed related to cleanliness. Second, qualitative interviews with Swedish people aim to show the social structuring of cleanliness. Understanding the interplay between physical and social structures has potential implications for decreasing resource intensity in everyday life.

Should there be more showers at the summer music festival? Studying the contextual dependence of resource consuming conventions and lessons for sustainable tourism

“…them into the laundry basket after only one or two wears (Jack, 2013;2017). The second is that everyday water consumption is not best thought of as a matter of personal choice.…”

Representations – A critical look at media’s role in cleanliness conventions and inconspicuous consumption

“…While cleanliness was allocated more space in magazines over the 30 years, time dedicated to cleanliness-related activities, laundering, ironing, washing-up and personal hygiene has decreased slightly over the same period, largely due to women’s time use decreasing down towards men’s steady allocation of time to cleanliness. The relationship here is not clear-cut, but it is interesting to note that while cleanliness content increased slightly in these women’s magazines, the time women spent on cleanliness decreased by nearly 10 minutes per day (Jack, 2017). That time used for cleaning decreased does not necessarily indicate decreasing cleanliness as there is unquantifiable interference from timesaving devices (washing machines, dishwashers, etc.).…”

“…Cleanliness practices are intensifying in the Swedish context. Despite an ambitious energy policy since the 1970s (Di Lucia and Ericsson, 2014), collective environmental consciousness and less time spent on cleaning activities, the pressure to present a clean appearance is increasing (Jack, 2017). To understand the paradox of increasing cleanliness practices despite environmental and social challenges, this article turns to five popular Swedish magazines and asks how cleanliness is represented since the 1980s, aiming to gain insight into how media representations interact with cleanliness conventions.…”

It’s only a matter of time: Flexibility, activities and time of use tariffs in the United Kingdom

“…Domestic cleaning represents a separate category of practices most commonly associated with running a household [4]. Domestic cleaning practices, such as laundering, are relatively flexible in time [23]. Smale et al in [21] group practices in relation to appliances involved and issues around time the distinctions made above.…”