The micro-politics of energy efficiency: An investigation of ‘eco-social interventions’ in western Switzerland

Abstract

Households have a role to play in the so-called ‘energy turn’ in Switzerland, a policy framework that calls for more efficient energy usage. Against this backdrop, this article critically analyses the mechanisms and running of a programme aimed at improving energy usage among low-income households in western Switzerland, bringing together both environmental and social objectives or what was termed an ‘eco-social intervention’. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and informed by a Foucauldian governmentality approach, the power dynamics of this programme are exposed, and its effect on the lived experience and subjectification of both household members and energy ambassadors are discussed. We argue that while presenting the appearance of technical rationality and political neutrality, this type of programme seeks to govern behaviours and leaves the ultimate responsibility for the protection of the environment on individuals, rather than promoting more collective and inclusive actions. Furthermore, we unravel how this programme participates in the reproduction of social differentiation by aiming at a particular social group, low-income households living in subsidised housing. We conclude with a discussion on how initiatives aimed at households could engage with the more complex arrangements of everyday life, rather than solely individual eco-gestures, while accounting for power dynamics.

Making a Case for Centring Energy Poverty in Social Policy in Light of the Climate Emergency: A Global Integrative Review

“…Important contributions are also made by Chipango (2020), who provided the first non-British study, examining the pervasive social scarcity of electricity in Zimbabwe via the lens of social justice. The final study to engage meaningfully with energy poverty came from Bertho et al (2021), who continued the internationalisation of the topic, with a study of energy efficiency and 'eco-social interventions' in Switzerland, in which they reveal the invisibility of fuel poverty as a policy concern. A commonality across all papers is a concern for distributional impacts, eligibility for government support, and revealing social injustices.…”

Imagining the ecosocial within social work

“…If the spheres conflict, social and ecological sustainability cannot be achieved simultaneously, that is, the promotion of ecological sustainability will have negative social impacts and vice versa. For instance, Bertho et al show that an initiative which seeks to improve energy usage (ecological sustainability) among poor households in Switzerland contributes to social differentiation (social unsustainability) (2021). If the spheres instead are compatible, this suggests that the promotion of one of the two spheres will favour the other, that is, efforts to promote ecological sustainability will have positive social impacts as well, and vice versa.…”

Harnessing welfare state theories to explain the emergence of eco-social policies

“…While the current knowledge provides us with, at least tentative, empirical insights into ecowelfare institutions, studies focusing on real-life eco-social policies are still relatively rare, as well as largely exploratory and/or descriptive. Examples can be found at the national level (both in European countries (Hvinden et al, 2022) and in the Global South (Carmi, 2016)), the supranational level (at both EU (Crespy and Munta, 2023;Mandelli et al, 2023;Petmesidou and Guillén, 2022;Sabato et al, 2021) and global levels (Kaasch and Schulze Waltrup, 2021)), and the local level (Bertho et al, 2021;Brandl and Zielinska, 2020;Khan et al, 2020). Little attention in this emerging literature has been paid to socio-political actors' behaviour and preferences and to how these affect the policymaking process.…”