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Media release 12 July 2007 - For Immediate Release
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The biggest force for tackling the water crisis isn’t being adequately tapped according to a cultural researcher at the University of Western Sydney.
Convening an international symposium this week on water sustainability, Dr Zoe Sofoulis, says adopting a cultural focus for water saving has enormous potential to change behaviour and make lasting reductions in water use.
She says most Australian research on water users has investigated the attitudes and socio-demographic characteristics of individuals to change or predict behaviour – ignoring the influence of culture in our community.
“Currently, the dominant focus on water users as individuals, doesn’t acknowledge there are social structures in society people belong to – interest groups, organisations and subcultures,” says Dr Sofoulis, from the UWS Centre for Cultural Research.
“People within these communities share experiences, support each other and most importantly influence each other’s behaviour.
“Tapping into these social structures could provide new avenues for delivering water saving messages, and new technologies, which have a higher chance of being adopted.”
Dr Sofoulis convened the symposium, ‘In the Pipeline: New directions in cultural research’, to draw together cultural, social and scientific researchers to exchange ideas and open debate on new approaches to water conservation.
“The current water crisis provides an opportunity to re-examine our cultural attitudes to water use,” Dr Sofoulis says.
“There are trail blazers in the community who are adopting extreme water miser practises. But there is also a groundswell of change in the wider community with about 60 per cent of Sydneysiders doing something right now to save water, such as DIY recycling” says Dr Sofoulis.
“There is great capacity in the community for change. Governments and regulators could capitalise on this momentum rather than continue to see the end users of water as part of the problem and not part of the solution,” she says.
The keynote address at the Symposium will be delivered by Professor Elizabeth Shove, from the Department of Sociology at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom.
Her research shows how the “inconspicuous consumption” of water in household tasks like laundering and bathing arises less from individual consumer choice than from shared cultural norms.
Professor Shove sees water as a flexible element used in a range of services from cleaning to gardening to personal hygiene, with people using the water differently in each task.
She says further water savings could be achieved by recognising this dynamic use of water and focussing on the services, or practises, that water makes possible. Water, Professor Shove argues, should not be seen as just one, uniform commodity.
The Symposium is supported by the Centre for Cultural Research, ARC Cultural Research Network, Australian Academy of Humanities and the Australian Water Association.
For further information, including the program and abstracts of presentations, visit: www.uq.edu.au/crn/pipeline/
WHAT: In the Pipeline: New directions in cultural research on water
WHEN: Thursday 19 July and Friday 20 July
WHERE: University of Western Sydney, Parramatta Campus, Corner of James Ruse Drive and Victoria Road, Rydalmere
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