Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Soc Sci Res. 2012 May;41(3):598-611. doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2011.12.007. Epub 2011 Dec 24.
We examine the influence of community context on change over time in households' use of non-wood fuels. Our theoretical framework builds on sociological concepts in order to study energy consumption at the micro-level. The framework emphasizes the importance of nonfamily organizations and services in the local community as determinants of the transition from use of fuelwood to use of alternative fuels. We use multilevel longitudinal data on household fuel choice and community context from rural Nepal to provide empirical tests of our theoretical model. Results reveal that increased exposure to nonfamily organizations in the local community increases the use of alternative fuels. The findings illustrate key features of human impacts on the local environment and motivate greater incorporation of social organization into research on environmental change.
我们研究了社区环境对家庭非木材燃料使用随时间变化的影响。我们的理论框架基于社会学概念，旨在从微观层面研究能源消耗。该框架强调了非家庭组织和服务在当地社区中的重要性，它们是从使用薪柴转向使用替代燃料的决定因素。我们利用尼泊尔农村地区的家庭燃料选择和社区环境的多层次纵向数据，对我们的理论模型进行实证检验。结果表明，当地社区中非家庭组织的接触增加会增加替代燃料的使用。这些发现说明了人类对当地环境的影响的主要特征，并促使更多地将社会组织纳入环境变化研究中。
