“The computer is never turned off”: Children's domestic practices and energy demand in urban China

Abstract

Behavioural energy studies rarely include children. This is due to complex research ethics when working with minors but perhaps also related to overlooking children as household members with an agency of their own. Drawing from a social practice theory perspective, this research explores how children act as an intersection point of domestic practices and shape energy demand in urban China. A high-density neighbourhood in Jinan, Shandong Province, is used as a case study. Based on in-depth interviews in 13 households and “home tours” with the participants, the findings show how the children have indoor-based, digitalised, and energy-intensive lifestyles. These middle-class families with an “education fever” prioritise the children's needs and their schooling in particular, resulting in a high number of individual appliances, used in private rooms, in large apartments with pre-installed building services. The parents and grandparents expressed concerns about their children's indoor lifestyle, and the implications for health and the environment but these concerns were overruled by prioritising the education. Drawing from the concept of Schatzki's material-arrangement bundles and Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital, this study perceives children's education as a form of cultural and social capital that, in this specific socio-spatial context, further drives domestic energt demand, despite recent improvements in energy efficiency of appliances and the building fabric. The paper calls for including children in energy studies and more comprehensive research approaches to better understand family dynamics, children's domestic practices and energy use.