Kerr, N J (2018) The rationale for retrofit: A multi-level, interdisciplinary perspective on the energy efficient retrofit of existing residential buildings. PhD thesis, University of Leeds, UK.
Abstract
The research in this thesis ultimately emanates from the international efforts to mitigate the impacts of anthropogenic climate change. The unprecedented international effort to transition societies to a low carbon future will have wide ranging political, social and economic consequences. The nature of the modern, complex, joined-up world entails that changes in any particular domain will have consequences that are wide-ranging, and often intangible. This thesis entails three distinct empirical pieces of research in relation to a key facet of many national climate mitigation efforts, namely the energy efficient retrofit of existing residential buildings. It develops a multi-level, interdisciplinary perspective that incorporates three different views on the rationale for retrofit. At the macro, government level the research considers the multiple benefit framing of energy efficiency in relation to the rationale for retrofit policy. Using the multiple streams theory of policy formation, descriptions of retrofit policy rationale in 4 national contexts are developed with the implications of potentially varying policy rationales considered. At the household level retrofit routinely takes place alongside general home renovations in a process that is connected to a wide variety of influences and background conditions. The micro-level research uses Q-methodology to develop holistic narratives of the home renovation process that provide a more heterogeneous understanding of households that have the potential to retrofit. A third article then combines the macro and micro-levels to consider the comparative economic rationale for government and households to invest in retrofit, considering the distributional properties that are a feature of many climate policy interventions. Finally, the thesis develops an integrated, interdisciplinary viewpoint by considering the political, social and economic perspectives on the rationale for home energy retrofit in conjunction.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Gouldson, A; Barrett, J and Brown, A |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | efficiency; residential; climate change; government; policy; renovation; retrofit; energy efficiency |
| Index terms: | efficiency, energy efficiency, residential building, low carbon, renovation, household, society, framing, mitigation, methodology, narrative, stream, policy formation, climate change, climate policy |
| Subjects: | qualitative and interpretive research, water management, renovation and retrofit, performance management, sustainability and energy, communities and social development, demography, financial risk, sustainability assessment, research methods, conceptual models, climate policy, climate science, construction type, policy studies |
| Topics: | Engineering Principles, Sustainability, Quality Management, Research Practice, Cost Management, Construction Technology, Governance, Stakeholder Management, Urban Studies |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here