SOBREPOL

Project overview

During 2022, the issue of energy efficiency returned to the forefront of public and political debate as the narrative of abundance was put to the test. As energy consumption has seen a measurable decline, the SOBREPOL project aims to conduct a form of debriefing on a ‘full-scale’, enforced experiment, in order to draw lessons for analysis and public policy. The aim is to test the hypothesis of a normative shift that occurred in 2022, by situating it within the trajectory of previous years. The SOBREPOL project examines the (re)emergence of frugality from four perspectives:

(1). To which policy priorities have the issues of energy efficiency and reducing energy consumption been linked, and by which actors? How were the instruments of public policy developed? This project provides an insider’s analysis of the process by which a policy framework for reducing energy consumption was constructed, under the banner of energy efficiency.

(2). At the same time, the project examines the trajectory of energy efficiency in the public sphere. How was energy efficiency publicised, covered by the media and politicised in the French public sphere?

(3). A quantitative sociological survey examines the reported energy-related practices of ordinary citizens, insofar as these have been altered (or not) by this turn of events. Have the re-emergence and reframing of the issue had an impact on ordinary citizens, both in terms of public opinion and social practices?

(4). Finally, on a more local level, the project seeks to address a particularly visible aspect of frugality through the switching off of lighting in public spaces. Does this reorder the importance attached to different issues? Four areas relating to the construction of frugality as a solution to a public problem are examined: discrete and sector-specific spaces, spaces of public communication, spaces of domestic appropriation, and urban spaces. The analysis combines different time scales, perspectives and methods from sociology, political science and urban research to investigate previously unanalysed data and draw lessons for action on the issue of reducing energy consumption.

The project is divided into five work packages:

• Work Package 1. Research into specific and sectoral contexts: the political construction of public policy instruments designed to reduce energy consumption.
• Work Package 2. The trajectory of energy efficiency in the public sphere: understanding the construction of energy efficiency through changes in media framing, public narratives and partisan policy agendas
• Work Package 3. Quantitative study: Understanding how ordinary citizens perceive and adopt the issues surrounding energy efficiency through their reported practices and perceptions
• Work Package 4. Study of lighting as a case in point: the visible face of energy consumption reduction?
• Work Package 5. Management, coordination and dissemination