Practicing the preaching? A study of the Transition Movement in Norway and its effort to change energy-related practices

Abstract

In Norway, a vast majority of the population supports scientific findings of climate change. At the same time, Norway´s emissions are increasing, while support for the environmental movement is decreasing. One might ask why the population is not more engaged in doing its part? A comparative case study of two groups of the Transition Movement, a community-based social movement rather new to Norway, aims to shed light on this. This study examines how and why the two biggest Transition groups in Norway have formed and mobilized participants, as well as whether, how and why participation in the groups contributes to changing social practices in order to reduce energy-related consumption and thus potentially the environmental strain of everyday life. Applying social practice theory and social movement theory, I have analysed findings for each of the two groups exclusively, as well as across both cases, enabling insight into the formation and the results of the Transition Movement in Norway in general, but also into local variations and the factors explaining these variations. Key findings are that the groups create places where participants invent and facilitate alternative consumption practices, demonstrating an original way of engaging citizens in reducing the energy intensity of their consumption; in many ways the opposite of what energy efficiency and consumption policies have prescribed the latter years. However, there are current limitations to the potential effect of the TM groups approaches, particularly in reaching out to a broader group of society, and in confronting material barriers that the groups unlikely can dismantle on their own.

In Norway, a vast majority of the population supports scientific findings of climate change. At the same time, Norway´s emissions are increasing, while support for the environmental movement is decreasing. One might ask why the population is not more engaged in doing its part? A comparative case study of two groups of the Transition Movement, a community-based social movement rather new to Norway, aims to shed light on this. This study examines how and why the two biggest Transition groups in Norway have formed and mobilized participants, as well as whether, how and why participation in the groups contributes to changing social practices in order to reduce energy-related consumption and thus potentially the environmental strain of everyday life. Applying social practice theory and social movement theory, I have analysed findings for each of the two groups exclusively, as well as across both cases, enabling insight into the formation and the results of the Transition Movement in Norway in general, but also into local variations and the factors explaining these variations. Key findings are that the groups create places where participants invent and facilitate alternative consumption practices, demonstrating an original way of engaging citizens in reducing the energy intensity of their consumption; in many ways the opposite of what energy efficiency and consumption policies have prescribed the latter years. However, there are current limitations to the potential effect of the TM groups approaches, particularly in reaching out to a broader group of society, and in confronting material barriers that the groups unlikely can dismantle on their own.