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Social Structures and Economic Conduct: Interpreting Variations in Household Energy Consumption.
- Source :
- Sociological Forum; Sep91, Vol. 6 Issue 3, p449, 22p
- Publication Year :
- 1991
-
Abstract
- The consumption of natural resources is rapidly emerging as a major social problem, and social efforts to control this consumption are guided in part by research that tries to specify the meaning of resources to consumers. This paper compares a sociological perspective with the more widespread economic model of consumption, using data from study of billing systems, sociocultural status, and household energy use in a California apartment complex. The research suggests that the role of marginal price in ordering consumption can be interpreted as a contingent feature of the socially structured relationship between consumption and social status. It also suggests that the utility of a technology is a secondary and emergent product of its use, a fact obscured by the conventional analytic separation of supply and demand or meansand ends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- ENERGY consumption
NATURAL resources
SOCIAL status
SOCIAL problems
SOCIAL history
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 08848971
- Volume :
- 6
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Sociological Forum
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 10797570
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01114472