Questions about the future of domestic water consumption

1
Questions about the future of domestic water
consumption

• Traces of Water Workshop 5
• 6th April 2006
• Will Medd and Elizabeth Shove

2
Unpacking implicit assumptions

• From water customers
• to the negotiation of consumer identities
• From demand constituted by decisions
• to the routines of everyday life
• From domestic demand in the home
• to the structuring of options
• From demand and supply management
• renegotiating roles and responsibilities

3
The future meaning and status of domestic water
consumption

• From the citizen through to consumer
• From economic to the environmental, social and
  cultural
• From the individual through to the collective
• Needs, rights and responsibilities

4
The changing dynamics of practice

• How are different practices changing and with
  what implications for the future?
• Are people engaging in practices in different
  ways?
• What might be the impact of changing technologies?

5
The future structuring of options

• How far are existing practices taken for granted
  (by regulation, resource management?) and
  embedded in the infrastructure?
• What forms of infrastructure provision are being
  explored for the future
• Changing scales of provision?
• Moves to the co-production of supply and
  demand?
• Generalised versus specialised systems of
  provision
• What kinds of organisations might be involved?
  How might they be structured?

6
Future crisis points

• How are current interventions likely to shape
  future responsibilities?
• How do failures in forecasting translate into a
  crisis of provision?
• What might be the scale and scope of future
  crises and of strategies for managing them?
• What future crises are already in the making?

7
A research agenda

• What are the baselines of current water
  practices? In what ways are they changinggt How
  are they being shaped?
• What are the different pathways through which
  options are structured? What pathways are being
  constructed for the future?
• How to balance the demand for certainty in supply
  side management, and supply of uncertainty
  generated by demand side management?