This project supports the research of a cultural anthropologist comparing household energy use in two comparable communities: a small city in Sweden and one in Minnesota. The investigator will reside for six months in each town to gather quantitative and qualitative information through participant observation, community-wide surveys, and in-depth interviews with household members and utility company personnel, government officials, and other public and private officials. The research will update and extend a study done by the investigator in 1980-82 which showed that technology was more influential than behavioral values in causing Sweden's lower per capita energy demand. The hypothesis is that behavioral variables such as concern for the environment as well as rising energy prices will have increased the importance of behavioral causes of energy conservation. This project is important because energy conservation can not be achieved by technical means alone. Understanding how households manage their energy consumption is a key factor in reducing the U.S.' historically high expenditures on energy consumption. Comparative case studies such as this one will provide crucial in-depth understanding of why people make the energy use decisions.
