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Reducing the Dutch energy demand to
stimulate a sustainable transition
A research on the obstacles that are experienced by housing corporations and their tenants with regard to the insulation of existing rental homes.
Master Thesis Political Science – University of Amsterdam
Research Project: Global environmental politics and governance in theory and practice Supervisor: Dr. Robin Pistorius
Second reader: Dr. Gordon Arlen Date: 26th of June 2020
Word count: 22.046
Student: Aimée van Nieuwenhuijzen Student number: 10492224
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Abstract
A sustainable transition of the Dutch housing sector requires the redesign of how our society is organized and how it operates. Yet, the period of time we have for this transformation is relatively short. Thus, we have to experiment and learn by doing to achieve our goals. A first step of a
sustainable transition is to reduce the energy demand of households. Limited academic research has been done on the combination of existing houses and insulation. Stakeholders experience political, social, and economic challenges because the insulation of existing houses is a relatively new development. The focus on housing corporation sector is because this sector is currently
experiencing these challenges as a frontrunner of the sustainable transition of the existing housing sector. Therefore, the aim of this research is to explore the political, social, and economic obstacles that housing corporations and tenants experience. Additionally, the influence of these obstacles on insulation projects. The theoretical framework consists of transition theory in combination with the Multi-Level Perspective, different levels of power and an integrated model on Pro-Environmental Behaviour and Decisions. This theoretical framework is combined with empirical data derived from 15 interviews with housing corporations, tenants, and representatives of associations to answer the research question.
This research concludes that the experienced obstacles do not obstruct insulation projects, yet, housing corporation and tenants do experience hinderance in the execution and their capability to influence these projects. Moreover, housing corporations experience obstacles due to their position as frontrunners, difficult economic considerations, prevailing social norms and required resources. These factors increase the complexity of the execution of insulation projects. In addition, tenants experience obstacles in influencing insulation projects due their depending relationships with housing corporations and other tenants. Plus, they experience hindrance due to the limited the resources they are able to use. Most tenants support the insulation of their homes because they are aware of the individual and collective benefits, but the conditions in which these projects are conducted are not always perceived as favourable to them.
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Acknowledgements
First, I would like to thank my supervisor Dr Robin Pistorius for guiding this master thesis project by providing new ideas, and literature, and by taking time to provide the necessary feedback despite these unusual circumstances because of COVID-19. In addition, I would like to thank my second reader Dr. Gordon Arlen for taking the time to read and judge this thesis.
Secondly, I would like to thank the interviewees for responding and taking the time provide to the most welcome information without which this thesis would not have been possible. Also, many thanks to in the people in the field who provided me with the knowledge and information to design this thesis. Also, I want to express my gratitude to my managers and colleagues at Manpower for supporting me and being flexible to give me the opportunity to do this Master.
Plus, I want to give a huge thank you to my dear family and friends that believed in me, supported me, and gave me the space that I needed to pull this off.
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Table of Content
Abstract ... 2 Acknowledgements ... 3 1. Introduction ... 6 1.1 Research question ... 61.2 Social and Academic Relevance ... 9
1.3 Thesis Outline ... 10
2. Context and Background Information ... 11
2.1 Governance Context ... 11
2.2 Housing corporation sector ... 11
2.3 Types of insulation ... 12
3. Theoretical framework ... 13
3.1 Transition of sustainable rental homes ... 13
3.2 Power & Politics and in Transitions ... 15
3.3 Pro-environmental decisions and behaviour ... 16
3.3.1 Governance Systems ... 19
3.3.2 Social Acceptance ... 20
3.3.3 Social Norms on Financing Insulation Initiatives ... 20
3.4 Conclusion ... 21
4. Research Design ... 23
4.1 Operationalisation of theoretical concepts ... 23
4.2 Demarcation of the research... 23
4.2.1 Unit of Analysis ... 23
4.3. Research methodology and methods ... 24
4.3.1 Epistemological & Ontological Foundations ... 24
4.3.2 Research Strategy ... 25
4.3.3 Semi-structured in-depth interview ... 26
4.3.3 Literature and Data ... 28
4.4 Methodological Review ... 28
4.4.1 Trustworthiness ... 29
4.3.2 Authenticity ... 30
4.5 Theoretical and societal relevance ... 30
5. Results and Analysis ... 31
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5.2 Limitations to community acceptance ... 38
5.3 Governance factors that hinder insulation projects ... 42
5.4 Limited influence of tenants to initiate and to shape the projects ... 46
5.5 Limitations on the capability of tenants to make an informed decision ... 51
5.6 Limitations to collective action of tenants ... 53
5.7 Limited compliance of housing corporations to agreements and plans. ... 57
6. Conclusion ... 59
7. Discussion ... 63
8. References ... 66
Appendices ... 71
Appendix 1: How power shapes transitions ... 72
Appendix 2: Background information on political social and economic determinants of the PEB&D model ... 73
2.1 Governance Systems ... 73
2.2 Social acceptance ... 75
2.3 Perceived procedural fairness of the distribution of financial costs and benefits ... 75
Appendix 3: Interview Questions ... 78
3.1 Interview questions for employees of housing corporations ... 78
3.2 Interview questions for tenants ... 79
3.3 Interview questions for employees of Associations (Aedes & Woonbond) ... 80
Appendix 4: Characteristics of housing stock of housing corporations. ... 81
Appendix 5: Information Interviewees and interviews ... 82
5.1 Employees Housing Corporations ... 82
5.2 Tenants ... 82
5.3 Employees of Associations ... 83
5.4 Descriptions of interviewees and their back grounds ... 83
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1. Introduction
Is the Netherlands capable to achieve its climate goals for 2050? The first steps are made by setting international and national goals to combat climate change. Yet the development and execution of preventive, mitigating and adaptive measures and the execution are challenging. On the one hand it requires to redesign the way our whole society is shaped and operates, which we just started to reimagine the last few decades. While on the other hand, the period of time we have for this transformation is relatively short. Thus, we have to experiment and learn by doing to achieve our goals. The challenge that is set before us is considerable and therefore the task requests the commitment and inventiveness of our whole society and not solely from governmental institutions (Hajer 2011: 6). Therefore, this thesis aims to attribute to a reflective learning process of societal actors by taking a step back and research the processes that are set out to achieve climate goals.
1.1 Research question
The climate goal that is important to this thesis is the goal of the Netherlands to become CO2-neutral by 2050. Meaning that the Dutch society adds zero CO2 to the atmosphere in relative terms. To reach this goal it is necessary to follow three steps. First, to reduce energy demand, second to switch to renewable energy sources and third limit the use of fossil energy sources (RVO 2015: 4-5). This thesis focusses on the first step, the reduction of the energy demand. Energy demand is used in a broad sense meaning the demand of electricity, heat, and other forms of energy. By lowering our energy demand, we can lower the use of fossil fuels, but it also lowers the requirements for innovative sustainable energy sources. By this we can limit the strains on the sustainable transition of our society.
Figure 1 shows the share of various sectors in the CO2 emissions of the Netherlands in the second quarter of 2019. From this information we can derive that households hold a significant share in the total of CO2 emission, namely 18,2%. Plus, in 2018 a total of 78% of the heating of rooms was based on natural gas by households. Therefore, a considerable reduction of CO2 emission can be achieved by reducing the use of non-renewable energy sources, in combination with renewable energy sources (CBS 2020; Middel, van Santen, de Voogt & van der Walle 2020).
7 Figure 1. Contributions of CO2 emissions by households and industries, Q2 2019 (CBS 2020)
From the Dutch Climate Agreement can be concluded that housing corporations are expected to act as a pioneer in the transition towards a sustainable housing stock (Klimaatakkoord 2020). Housing corporations are assigned this role because they are seen as social corporations which means that they are private corporations that serve a public role. Moreover, corporations have considerable organisational and financial capacity and they have a lot of knowledge. In addition, they own a big share of the total Dutch housing stock. Around 2,4 million of the 7,7 million houses in the Netherlands are owned by housing corporations. Therefore, it can be argued that it is logical to assign the pioneer role to housing corporations (Aedes 2020; Hellebreker 2020; Ministerie van BKZ 2019: 10, 94).
Governing the construction of sustainable new houses appears to be less complicated because governmental institutions can set standards and can enforce this by their authority to give out construction permits or writing out tenders. Yet, governments are experiencing challenges when it comes to developing and enforcing sustainability regulations for existing houses. First, the sustainable transition of existing houses encounters multiple obstacles for governance because of the limited juridical authority over this sector to demand changes when it comes to existing rental houses. Plus, governmental institutions are also less inclined to heavily regulate and enforce this sector because it is not part of their governance philosophy of deregulation of the past decades. This philosophy sees an important (governance) responsibility for private actors and citizens. Secondly, the sustainable transition of rental houses encounters important obstacles because the house is owned by one party,
8 but the energy and gas bill are usually payed by the tenant. Thus, any reduction of the energy and heating bill is at the benefit of the tenant, but investments in insulation are invested in the property of the house owner, in this case the housing corporation (Gillingham, Harding & Rapson 2012: 40-41; Hajer 2011: 6, 8, 52; Haynes, Grensing, McIntosh, Kuhn, Scott, Eisen Bacher, Burke & Haedtke 2016: 4 -6; Kearns 1995: 157-158; Klijn 2008: 508, 511). This raises questions about the rights and obligations of both parties, and how both housing corporations and their tenants should position themselves in the sustainability transition. In addition, it raises questions about the political, social, and economic factors shape the transition towards a sustainable Dutch housing stock.
To focus this research, the choice has been made to focus on one specific section of a sustainable transition that supports the first step of the Trias Energetica: insulation. Still a significant part of the housing stock has no or limited insulation, although this portion has been increasing the past few years (CLO 2020; Ministerie van BKZ 2019: 83). Thus, there is still an important step to be made with regard to insulation of the housing corporation sector to decrease the Dutch energy demand by increasing insulation. This is illustrated by figure 2 and 3.
9 Figure 3. Energetic quality based on ownership, 2018 (Ministerie van BKZ 2019: 83)
Based on the aforementioned information the following research question has been formulated: Which political, social, and economic factors do housing corporations and their tenants in the Netherlands experience as obstacles and how do these factors shape insulation projects regarding
existing rental houses?
The next paragraph addresses the social and theoretical relevance of this research.
1.2 Social and Academic Relevance
Studies show that more and more people are aware of the need to take measures to make our society more sustainable. On the other hand, there is a contrast between people's consciousness and the behaviour they display. From this it can be concluded that there are hindering factors to convert attitudes into sustainable actions and decisions (Gabriella & Whatson 2012: 311; Holloway & Bunker 2006). This research addresses the hindering political, social, and economic factors that are experienced as hindering by the stakeholders. Consequently, societal actors can address the hindering factors by the developed insight in how stakeholders are hindered to execute these goals. Moreover, the Netherlands has a better chance of tackling sustainability challenges by creating more favourable conditions for the insulation of existing properties. In addition, this research question aims to provide insights in the way our society shapes insulation projects. Therefore, this thesis does not solely aim to research the hindering factors to reach our goals but also to provide information to reflect on the way our society intentionally and unintentionally shapes the sustainable transition of the Dutch housing sector.
10 The academic relevance of this thesis resides in the limited academic research that has been done on the combination of the existing rental housing sector and insulation. At the moment, only some research has been conducted on insulation in the Australian rental sector and sustainability in residential sector of the United Kingdom and the United states (Gabriella & Whatson 2012; Maller & Horne 2011) In addition, a research has been conducted by Priemus in 2005 on policy perspectives on sustainable housing (Priemus 2005). From this it can be concluded that academic knowledge on hindering factors of insulation projects in the rental sector is, and especially the Dutch rental sector, limited to non-existent. This research thus aims to fill this knowledge gap. Plus, this research contributes to theoretical knowledge by providing more insight in the dialectical relation between transitions and decisions and behaviour of actors. This is further elaborated in the chapter on the methodology, paragraph 3.5.
1.3 Thesis Outline
This thesis is divided in seven chapters. The first following chapter addresses the governance system, insulation, and the housing corporation sector to provide some context and background knowledge of the thesis subject. The next chapter encompasses theories and concepts to provide insight in the relationships between context, experiences of housing corporations and tenants, the effects on insulation projects and the implications for a sustainable transition. Chapter four draws attention to how this research is conducted and provides an argumentation for certain methodological choices that are made. The next chapter describes the seven main hindering factors that are experienced by housing corporations and/or tenants and their effects on insulation projects based on numerous interviews. This chapter is followed a conclusion linking the results and theory to answer the research question. The final chapter discusses the implications of the conclusion for the sustainable transition of the Dutch housing sector, the theoretical and methodological limitations, and some preliminary governance and research recommendations.
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2. Context and Background Information
2.1 Governance Context
The first Dutch policy on the environmental subjects was called the National Environmental Policy Plan, which was published in 1989. After this, various policies have been developed that address sustainable housing. At present, building legislations, such as the Bouwbesluit or `building directive', which devotes considerable attention to the requirements of sustainable construction and energy efficiency. High insulation values have become standard in newly build houses, partly due to increasing national and European regulations since the Oil Crisis in 1973. However, currently limited governmental regulation exists on insulation of existing houses apart from the sustainability goals for a share of the housing corporation stock in the Dutch climate agreement. Whereas Aedes (association of housing corporations) has agreed on private regulations and has set the goal that all housing corporations should have a housing stock with an average energy label B in 2021 (Aedes 2017: 2; Aedes 2018: 5; Bewonersvereniging Watergrasgouda 2020; Buiting 2020; Klimaatakkoord 2020; Kooij 2014: 2-3: Ministerie van BZK 2012: 83, 91; Priemus 2005: 5-6).
To understand the positions of housing corporations and their tenants during insulation projects it is useful to provide some background knowledge on how governance constructs the relationship between the two. Housing corporations need consent from a tenant when they want to alter a house because this is an alteration of what is agreed upon in the lease agreement. When there is an alteration of multiple houses in a single housing complex, housing corporations need to obtain consent of 70% of the tenants. This policy has been developed to support landlords to perform renovations because if you need 100% consent, landlords would never be able to carry out any renovations because there is always one household that does not give consent. Housing corporations can show that their proposal is ‘reasonable’ based on this 70%, and consequently, all tenants have to comply with the proposal. In addition, it is possible for a tenant to go to court if he or she does not agree that the proposal is ‘reasonable’. A court then decides whether a decision is reasonable or not. If the proposal is deemed reasonable, then the tenant still has to comply. If the proposal is not deemed reasonable, then the housing corporation is not allowed to execute the plan (Hellebreker 2020: Rijksoverheid 2020a: Jager 2018: 7-9).
2.2 Housing corporation sector
The housing corporation sector manages a large portion of the Dutch social housing. Meaning that rents for households with less than three persons may not by higher than € 619,01 a month, or € 663,40 for households with three or more persons. Moreover, 80% of the vacant houses should be allocated to households with an income of € 39,055 or lower. The other 20% is for higher incomes up
12 until lower middle incomes. Social housing has been a governmental task in the past but since the 70s housing corporations gained more independence. Since 1995 housing corporation have been financially independent. Housing corporations started to engage more in self-regulation however there are still numerous governmental policies that shape the housing corporation sector. An
important governmental policy that regulates the financial resources of housing corporations and the rent of their tenants is the Woningwaardeeringsstelsel (WWS), or in English the Home Valuation System. The maximum rent that is allowed to be asked for a house depends on this point system. The points of a house depend on the energy label and the type of house. The implementation of
insulation can thus have consequences for the amount of rent because it improves the energy performance of a house. In addition, housing corporations make annual performance agreements with municipalities. Plus, there are multiple internal and external bodies that monitor compliance of housing corporations to governmental and private regulations. At last, housing corporations inhibit market, as well as, governmental logics and characteristics. This is the result of their financial independence, their public task of providing housing for households with lower incomes and the non-profit system (Berben & Kuipers 2014: 3: Cloudt: 2015: 11-12, 55, 59, 60, 279-283; Rijksoverheid 2020b)
2.3 Types of insulation
Insulation is not a new invention, Since the middle ages people started to use multiple materials to insulate their homes. However, the insulation of homes started to become standard after the development of policies in the 1970s. Moreover, insulation of houses comes in multiple forms. The roof, the walls and floor of a house can be insulated to reduce the loss of heat, or to prevent heat from coming in. Plus, special types of windows are available such as double glazing for the same purpose. These techniques help to save energy on regulating the climate inside a home. Moreover these techniques form the scope of this thesis. It is important to keep in mind that the different techniques vary in terms of costs, labour intensity, insulation value and in terms of the disturbance for the residents. Therefore, experiences of housing corporations and tenants may differ depending on the type of insulation that is used (Buiting 2020: Haverkamp 2020: Milieucentraal 2020).
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3. Theoretical framework
From the introduction can be concluded that a transition in our societal system is necessary and is occurring to prevent severe climate change. Therefore, the theoretical framework first addresses transition theory and the multi-level perspective that helps to visualise transitions. The second paragraph addresses the role of power in transitions to provide more insight in agency. The third paragraph conceptualizes social, political, and economic dimensions that shape pro-environmental decisions and behaviour (hereafter abbreviated to PED&B) of actors towards insulation of homes. This is further elaborated by using an integrated model of PED&B which is adapted for this thesis. The model describes how PED&B are formed. Therefore, this model provides support in analysing and describing how the obstacles that housing corporations and tenants experience, shape their pro-environmental decisions and behaviour. And, at last a conclusion of the theoretical framework is provided before turning to the methodology.
3.1 Transition of sustainable rental homes
Increasing the insolation of existing rental homes in the Netherlands requires an intentional transition process, which might already partly be occurring considering the efforts that have been taking place in the housing corporation sector. Therefore, it is necessary to describe what a transition is. Avelino & Rotmans define transition as a “non-linear process of social change in which a societal system is structurally transformed” (2009: 543). Grin (2010: 2) describes transitions as a “fundamental type of societal change: a change both in practices and in the structural context (institutions, physical structure) in which these are embedded”. A transition is thus a change of the way a societal system is organized and operates, but also the foundations on which this societal system is based (Grin 2010a: 2). To comply to the sustainability goals mentioned in the introduction, in a relative short period, requires a transition of how the housing corporation sector is structured and operates (Aedes 2018: 5; Bewonersvereniging Watergrasgouda 2020; Buiting 2020; Kooij 2014: 2-3: Ministerie van BZK 2012: 83, 91).
The Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) provides a useful visualisation of transition processes because it provides insights in what occurs when practices are shaped, transformed and embedded in societal structures. The MLP distinguishes three levels, namely the regime (or sociotechnical regime), niche and landscape level. The broad socio-technical regime is constructed by dominant regimes that determine how different parts of our societal system are organized and how they operate. Moreover, a sociotechnical regime is a stable configuration of institutions, techniques, rules, practices, and networks. A sociotechnical regime thus heavily influences how is acted upon the subject of insulation through defining the relevant actors, and how they are capable and willing to act considering political,
14 social economic and technical factors. Niches are less developed, constellations of actors, institutions and practices that do not fit into the sociotechnical regime.. The landscape consists of macro-trends that change very slowly (such as macroeconomic trends, political ideologies, and societal values). The three layers interact with each other, which could result in the transition of the sociotechnical regime to a new dynamic equilibrium or the continuation of the status quo. A transition happens when developments of landscape trends or niches, together or alone, put more pressure on the regime to change compared to the resistance of the regime to change. After a transition, a new dynamic equilibrium stabilises when the pressures between three layers are in balance (Avelino & Rotmans 2009: 544-545; Geels 2011: 26-29; Smith, Stirling & Berkhout 2005: 1493). See figure 4 for a visualisation of the Multi-Level Perspective on transitions.
Figure 4. A schematic visualisation of the Multi-Level Perspective on transitions (Geels 2011: 28). As already mentioned, the interaction between the three levels consist of pressure at the socio-technical regime to change and resistance to change, thus power is involved in these interactions. Therefore, the next paragraph addresses the concept of power and how it plays a role in transitions.
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3.2 Power & Politics and in Transitions
As stated in the previous paragraph, the MLP provides insights in the shaping, transformation and embedding of practices in societal structures. It provides insights in what happens when transformations occur, but it has a limited ability to explain how and why they occur, which requires insight in agency. Which in other words means, the ability to act independently of the structure and influence this structure (Smith et al. 2005 :1492 and Geels 2011: 29-31). The concept of power is used in this thesis to explore how the different actors, institutions and networks influence transitions.
The researchers Arts and van Tatenhove (2005) have formulated useful conceptualisations of power and politics which is used to expand and refine the MLP. This allows for an enhanced ability to analyse obstructing factors that play a role in the transition of the Dutch rental housing. Arts & van Tatenhove (2004: 347) formulated power as follows: “power is the organisational and discursive capacity of agencies, either in competition with one another or jointly, to achieve outcomes in social practices, a capacity which is however co-determined by the structural power of those social institution in which these agencies are embedded”. First, this means that power depends on how a societal system is organized, but also on the discursive capacities of an actor or a group of actors to influence the system. Secondly, power can be transitive or intransitive which means power can be used in corporation (intransitive) or counteract (transitive). Thirdly, power can be drawn from structure, as well as from agency. Hereby they capture the explicit dimensions of power I which actors are forced to do what they would otherwise not do but also inexplicit dimensions of power whereby actors are influenced without them being aware of it. Forth, structures do not act themselves, they are manifested through human action. The structure shapes the actions of actors by putting boundaries on behaviour but also by defining what behaviour is more desirable or undesirable. Finally, human agency shapes structures although this takes place over a longer period than the time it takes structures to shape agency. In addition, the shaping, distributing, and exercising power is a political process. Meaning that a transition is shaped by political processes. Thus, on the one hand, power shapes the (perceived) capability and willingness of actors to make certain decisions and show certain behaviour. On the other hand, power shapes the capability of actors to influence other actors, directly through social interaction or indirectly through societal structures. This conceptualisation of power by Arts & van Tatenhove allows for the analysis of both the power of agency and influence of structures. (Arts & van Tatenhove 2004: 340, 347-349).
Arts & van Tatenhove (2004: 349-353) have identified three layers; relational power, dispositional power, and structural power. Arts & van Tatenhove (2004: 349-353) describe relational power as the capability to achieve outcomes in interactions with other actors which again depend on the competence of the actors and the capability to draw upon dominant configurations in the relevant
16 sociotechnical regimes. Moreover, this power is constructed and exerted in social interactions. Niches draw heavily on relational power to interact with the dominant regime and to become part of status quo. Relational power is the most dominant layer of power because niche actors are not part of a sociotechnical regime and therefore, these actors have limited dispositional power. Dispositional power relates to the position of an actor in a societal structure. First, societal rules define the position actors have in a society, plus they legitimize and give meaning to a position within a structure. Second, the division of resources determines how independently an actor can act within a positioning structure. Moreover, the socio-technical regime consists out of dominant positioning structures, the distribution of resources and the capabilities of actors within their positions and therefore, dispositional power is more dominant at this level. In addition, structural power comes from macro-societal structures, or the landscape, that shape how societies are organised and operate by determining the importance, legitimacy, and domination of societal elements. These macro-societal structures do not act themselves, as already mentioned but, they translated in political, social, and economic factors that shape perspectives, behaviour, and decisions of actors. To summarize, relational, dispositional and structural power shape the political, social and economic factors that actors perceive as obstacles to act and to make decisions in relation to insulation projects (Arts & van Tatenhove 2004: 349-352; Grin, Rotmans & Schot 2010b: 282-284). For more information on how power can shape transitions see Appendix 1.
To conclude, actors interact with the landscape, regime, and niche layers of the context and therefore, there is a dialectic power relationship between the actors and political, economic, and social structures. This dialectical power relationship shapes the transition of a societal system and the willingness and capability of actors to make decisions and act regarding insulation projects. However, this raises important questions on how this dialectic power relationship supports and hinders pro-environmental behaviour and decisions, and by this, shape insulation projects. Therefore, the next chapter visualises how power shapes political, social, and economic factors shape insulation projects though behaviour and decisions.
3.3 Pro-environmental decisions and behaviour
The willingness and capability of actors to make certain pro-environmental decisions and show certain pro-environmental behaviour is shaped by multiple social, political, and economic determinants. To explore the political, economic, and social factors that are perceived as obstacles by housing corporations and their tenants, it is important to understand how PEB&D comes into being. To this end a model of Wilson & Dowlatabadi (2007: 183) is used and adapted to provide visual support (See figure 5). In this model, actor specific and contextual determinants shape the decisions and behaviour of housing corporations and their tenants by determining four types of causal variables: attitudes,
17 habits and experiences, capabilities, and external conditions. The alignment of these types of causal variables determines the pro-environmental behaviour that an actor shows and which decisions it makes.
Figure 5. An integrated model of PEB&D in the context of insulation of existing rental houses. Adapted from (Wilson & Dowlatabadi 2007: 183)
Attitudes are the intentions of an actor to change or continue to make certain decisions and or show certain behaviour. Attitudes or intentions are based on values. The formation of an attitude starts with the threat to an actors values, followed by the assignment of responsibly to itself to mitigate the consequences, which gets connected to specific behaviours and/or decisions (Wilson & Dowalatabadi 2007: 182-184; Stern 2000: 412-415). An example of this is that some tenants value their privacy, is they feel that insulation projects threaten they privacy their attitude towards the project proposal could be to reject it (Ogg 2020; Hellebreker 2020; Tenant Ymere 2020; Venema 2020).
The second type is habits and experiences. Habits are standard forms of behavioural patterns or decision-making procedures. In addition, past experiences form perceptions about certain decisions or behaviour. For example, some of the reluctance of tenants towards insulation projects comes from the negative experiences because of disturbance and clutter they had in the past during constructions. Therefore, they may choose to reject insulation proposals (Haverkamp 2020; van Haastrecht 2020; Stern 2000: 415-418; Wilson & Dowlatabadi 2007: 181-186).
18 Capabilities are characteristics of an actor that determine its individual capability to make certain decisions and show certain behaviour (Stern 2000: 415-418; Wilson & Dowlatabadi 2007: 181-186). An important capability that plays a role in this thesis is the capability to attribute financial resources to invest in insulation (Brandsema 2020; Brunt; 2020; Haverkamp 2020; Kors 2020; Schouls 2020; Som de Cerff 2020; Venema 2020)
Finally, external conditions are contextual conditions that are external to the actor which allow or hinder the options of behaviour and decisions that are available to them. These contextual conditions include “physical, financial, legal, or social influences”. Moreover, in some cases an actor needs other actors to make certain decisions and perform certain actions to fulfil its own intention. For example, both tenants and housing corporations, need the consent of the other actor to make alterations to the construction of a house. Therefore, the decisions and behaviour of other actors can be part of external conditions (Wilson & Dowlatabadi 2007: 184).
The thin blue arrows represent the shaping, distribution and exertion of power that influence the political, social, and economic determinants. For example, the distributional structure of resources has an influence on the power resources that an actor has. However, contextual determinants such as social norms can shape values and other actor-specific determinants. Thus, the thin blue arrows are political process of power that influence determinants. In addition, these determinants are sources of power that are used by an actor through its behaviour and decisions.
In other words, political, social, and economic determinants can support or restrict the behavioural or decision options. Moreover, an actor is determined to show PEB&D when its attitude is positive and the other types of causal variables are aligned with this, meaning that the actor is able to carry out its intention. Relational, dispositional, and structural power shape the determinants that determine the attitude, habits and experiences, capabilities, and external conditions which in their turn determine PEB&D (Stern 2000: 415-418; Wilson & Dowlatabadi 2007: 181-186).
In figure 5 the determinants are depicted that are expected to be relevant for the research question that is central to this thesis based on theoretical literature. Therefore, the following paragraphs elaborate shortly on how and why these determinants are relevant to explore the obstacles that are experienced by housing corporations and their tenants and how they influence insulation projects. Importantly, these determinants are used as exploration tools. The determinant ‘values’ determines the attitude. Other determinants such as positioning (structures), social interaction and (the distribution of) resources shape the capability of actors to make certain decisions and show certain behaviour. Positioning and positioning structures determine the resources that are available to an actor. For example, tenants that are organized have more access to financial resources and by
19 that they also have more access to knowledge because they can hire external experts. Plus, they determine to what extent the actor is dependent on resources and social interactions to make decisions and act in a certain way. Moreover, resources such as financial resources and knowledge determine the capabilities of an actor. Moreover, social interactions determine to what extent an actor is able to collaborate or to hinder certain behaviour or decisions of others. As interviewee van Perlo (2020) explained the interaction between tenants determines they capabilities because more interaction creates more awareness about their collective negotiation position which increases, they organizational capacity. At last, the determinants ‘governance systems, ‘social acceptance’, ‘social norms’ have not been discussed yet. Based on academic literature, these determinants can have a create influence on the at the attitudes, habits and experiences, capabilities and external conditions that determine the behaviour and decisions of housing corporations and tenants (Connelly, Smith, Benson, Saunders 2012: 359; (Curtiusa, Hillea, Bergerb, Hahnelc & Wüstenhagena 2018; 600-601; Wilson & Dowlatabadi 2007: 171; Wüstenhagen, Wolsink & Bürer 2007: 2684-2689; Young 2013: 97-98; Zhao, He, Johnson & Mou 2015: 1603). These determinants are addressed in a confined way in the next paragraphs (3.3.1 up until 3.3.3) to give some insight in how these determinants could shape the decisions and behaviour of housing corporations and tenants. (For more background information on these determinants, see Appendix 2)
3.3.1 Governance Systems
A governance system is an important variable because it influences the position actors, it allocates resources to the actors in each position and it influences the interactions that take place. As Young (2013: 6) describes, governance systems are “social institutions in the sense of rights, rules, and decision-making procedures that give rise to social practices, assign roles to the participants in these practices, and guide interactions among holders of these roles” (Connelly et al. 2012: 359). From the quote of Connelly et al. (2012: 359) it becomes clear that governance systems are important sources of dispositional power since social institutions define and give meaning to the positioning of actors. Moreover, a governance system is part of the sociotechnical regime since it is a dominant configuration of social institutions and networks that govern how a societal system is organized and operates. In other words, governance determines how relational and dispositional power is distributed and how it can be used. Plus, through rules and laws, governance systems shape and determine social interactions. For example, tenants that are organized in residents’ committees have the right to be informed about insulation projects and advise housing corporations. In addition, the housing corporations are obligated to provide these committees with the resources to fulfil their tasks (Connelly et al., 2012: 246, 359; Overheid.nl 2020b; Rijksoverheid 2020d; Woonbond 2020; Young 2013: 97-98).
20 To conclude, governance systems define relationships between governmental institutions and non-governmental actors. They also assign responsibilities and allocate resources to different positions. Therefore, governance systems directly shape external conditions and they indirectly influence the capabilities of an actor to make pro-environmental decisions and show pro-environmental behaviour through a positioning structure, the resources that are available to them and shaping of social interactions.
3.3.2 Social Acceptance
Another important factor that can shape the external conditions of PEB&D is social acceptance because there is a dependent relationship between housing corporation and tenants to implement insulation. Literature shows that social acceptance is an important factor that can stimulate or hinder the implementation of sustainable techniques (Wilson & Dowlatabadi 2007: 171; Wüstenhagen, Wolsink & Bürer 2007: 2689; Zhao, He, Johnson & Mou 2015: 1603). Wüstenhagen et al. (2007: 2684-2689) distinguish three dimensions of social acceptance. The first dimension is socio-political acceptance, which refers to the broad acceptance of technologies and policies to stimulate the implementation of sustainable technology. Within this thesis model socio-political acceptance is used as a factor that influences the values and experience of actor to support insulation initiatives or to actively take part in the project. Community acceptance refers to the acceptance of the actors who are directly influenced by the implementation of the technique which, in the case of this thesis, are housing corporations and tenants. The perceived procedural justice (fairness of the process such as decision-making processes), perceived distributional justice (fairness of burden sharing such as the costs of the projects), and trust (in the in information and intentions of the promotors) determine the attitudes of actors towards insulation projects. Therefore, they also determine attitudes of other actors and thus external conditions. Insulation projects can rarely be executed independently because of the dependent relations between housing corporations and tenants that are constituted by governance systems and social norms. Neither one can act without the (general) acceptance of the other group. Finally, market acceptance is mentioned as a dimension of social acceptance. This dimension refers to the adoption of an innovation or sustainable technology by the market. This depends on the behaviour and decisions of consumers and investors. Social acceptance can thus be described as a collective attitude. All three dimensions should be positive to be able to implement insulation (Sonnberger & Ruddat 57; Wüstenhagen et al. 2007: 2684-2689; Zhao et al. 2015: 1603-1605).
3.3.3 Social Norms on Financing Insulation Initiatives
The prevalence of social norms is important for this thesis because they shape the values of actors and they shape which decisional and behavioural options are available to housing corporations and
21 tenants. Social norms are informal widely accepted rules in a culture regarding social behaviour, which are part of the sociotechnical regime and thus shape the actions and decisions of actors. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, distributional fairness is an important factor that influences community acceptance. However, social norms on the distributional fairness of financial costs and benefits of insulation projects of existing rental homes does not exist yet. Therefore, conceptions of fairness might differ greatly. Moreover, the spending of housing corporation for existing homes traditionally consisted out of repairs and large-scale renovations every 10 to 20 years. However, the implementation of insulation does not match what is typically considered a repair or a renovation. Thus, social norms should be developed on how the costs and benefits of insulations ought to be distributed. Moreover, split incentive emerges in the renting sector because the benefits of an investment are shared meaning that if one actor invest, it is not able to enjoy all the benefits. This creates difficulties because the incentive for an actor to invest is lower. In general, the benefits of insulation are lower energy and heating costs, a higher level of comfort and increased value of the property. This is the case of the Dutch rental housing sector these benefits are shared among the housing corporation and the tenants. Tenants benefit from the lower energy and heating costs, and the higher level of comfort. In addition, the increase in the value of the house is in the interest of the housing corporation. Thus, individually investing in insulation is not as profitable for the homeowner or the tenant compared to a situation in which the homeowner is the resident and reaps all the benefits of its investment. In conclusion, social norms guide the behaviour of actors but the absence of social norms can create challenges for the distribution of the costs of insulation projects (Curtiusa 2018: 600-601; Gabriella & Whatson 2012: 311; Gillingham et al. 2012: 40-41; Haynes et al. 2016: 4-6; Sullivan 2009: 280).
3.4 Conclusion
Transitions will occur when attitudes, habits, capabilities, and external conditions of stakeholders are aligned in such a way that it favours pro-environmental decisions and behaviour, which increases the implementation of insulation in existing rental houses. Actors interact with context that consists out of landscape trends, social technical regimes, and niches. This interaction consists out of a dialectical power relationship. The Multi-Level perspective offers a visualization of the niche, regime, and landscape context that shapes actors and their actions, while on the other hand and at the same time the actor shapes this context.
This dialectical relation can be understood in terms of relational, dispositional, and structural power. The context constitutes political, social, and economic factors that shape attitudes, habits and experiences, capabilities, and external conditions actors. When the four types of causal variables of all the relevant actors align, then pro-environmental decisions and behaviour can occur. The aim of
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this research is to explore the political, social, and economic factors hinder the alignment of the attitudes, habits capabilities and external conditions that are favourable for PEB&D. In addition, this research aims to explore how these factors shape insulation projects through the behaviour and decisions of actors. The following paragraph sets out the research design that is adopted to research these objectives.
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4. Research Design
4.1 Operationalisation of theoretical concepts
This research aims to explore the political, social, and economic factors that hinder insulation initiatives. The figure (5) of the integrated and adapted PEB&D forms the foundation of the operationalisation of the relevant theoretical concepts of this thesis. The political, social, and economic factors are operationalized into the governance system, positioning structure, social acceptance, social norms, social position, social interaction, individual norms, and resources. Moreover, these determinants are used as explorative tools to guide the interviews with housing corporations, tenants, and representatives of associations. Additionally, the second objective of the interviews is to analyse how these factors influence each other and how they influence the attitudes, habits, capabilities, and external conditions of housing corporations and tenants to make pro-environmental decisions and show pro-environmental behaviour. The influences are operationalised into relational, dispositional, and structural levels of power, as has been described in paragraph 3.2 and 3.4. The next paragraph elaborates on the demarcation of the research in which these concepts are explored. The second paragraphs address the research methodology and methods and the third paragraph provides a methodological review. At last, this chapter is concluded by a clarification of the theoretical and empirical relevance.
4.2 Demarcation of the research
4.2.1 Unit of Analysis
This research focusses on a specific group of tenants and landlords. Moreover, the rental housing sector can be divided in housing corporations and private rental corporations. The experiences in both sectors could vary greatly because they are subjected to differing governance systems. In addition, they have different goals, their housing stock consists of different rental types (social housing or private housing) and they generally serve different market segments (Cloudt 2015 11: Ministerie BZK 2019: 43-56, 130). Therefore, the choice is made to focus the research on the housing corporations. The housing corporation sector is ideally suited to explore factors that hinder transitions existing rental housing stock because they are seen as the frontrunner in this transition. Furthermore, this sector has the goal to have housing stock with on average energy label B and have the goal to be CO2- neutral in 2050 (Aedes 2018: 3). Thus, multiple housing corporations do already engage in insulation initiatives which creates a wide variety in experiences. Therefore, the housing corporation sector is most suitable to explore the factors that hinder transitions. It is important to focus on landlords, as well as their tenants, because the insulation of existing rental houses requires the (re)conceptualisation of working methods of and relationships between tenants and landlords. This (re)conceptualisation should
24 translate in effective transitions to housing stocks. Therefore, the units of analysis of this research are the experiences of housing corporations and their tenants within the Netherlands (Trochim 2020).
4.3. Research methodology and methods
This paragraph first addresses the epistemological & ontological foundations of this research to be able to explain the choices that are made in the research strategy. Henceforth, the research strategy is described including the choices of empirical data and execution of the analysis.
4.3.1 Epistemological & Ontological Foundations
The unit of analyses are the experiences of housing corporations and tenants. These experiences are in this research perceived observable phenomenon that are subjective reflections of a social reality that consists of social structures such as landscapes, regimes, and niches. The epistemological and ontological position of critical realism suits this stance and therefore, it forms the foundations for this research. Critical realism assumes that there is an observable part of social reality that can be researched in the positivistic way. For example, there are events such as signing a declaration of consent for renovation of houses, which are observable. However, critical realism assumes that there is also a part of reality such as social constructions, that shape and determine reality that cannot be confirmed by phenomenalism in observable patterns of events (Bryman 2008: 13-21; Flecher 2017: 181-183). Fletcher 2017 (183) describes three levels that aid in understanding the epistemological and ontological position of critical realism. First the empirical level, at this level are event or objects that we experience that can be measured because they are visible through the interpretation of humans. These are social ideas, meanings, decisions, and actions. The middle level or the actual level, is the level on which there is no filter of human interpretation. These events occur independently of our experiences or interpretations. At last there is the third and real level, at this level causal structures do exist that form the foundations of actual events, empirical experiences, and interpretations of reality. In summary, there is a reality, that exists within and outside our experiences and interpretations. This reality consists of properties that produce causal forces for observable phenomena. Critical realism thus allows to research experiences as units of analysis that are observable and inform about a social reality (such as political, social, and economic factors and power) that forms the structure for these experiences. This allows to explore the possible causal relations between political, social, and economic factors on the one hand and decisions and behaviour on the other hand. Plus, the influence of this relation on insulation initiatives can be analysed. However, critical realism does not assume that there is an indisputable relationship between causes and effects (Bryman 2008: 13-21; Flecher 2017:181-183). This is put clearly into the following words by Fletcher 2017 (185): “CR [Critical Realism] looks for tendencies, not laws”.
25 Furthermore, patterns can only be identified through research that is based on a combination empirical and theoretical foundations. The theory and conceptualisations within this research are a way of knowing and understanding reality. Theories can therefore provide knowledge and conceptualisations to make sense of observable social events, activities, or other phenomena. Concluding, this research has the ability to explore potential causal relations which allows to propose recommendations to change social structures to benefit certain social goals. This attributes to the empirical relevance of the research. Yet, critical realism refrains from treating theoretical causal relations as deterministic regularities between variables. This prevents thoughtless and radical replication of recommendations in situations that may appear similar but are founded on different social structures that are not completely observable through research (Bryman 2008: 13-21, 590; Flecher 2017: 181-183).
4.3.2 Research Strategy
The aim of this research is to explore the political, social, and economic factors that are experienced by actors as hindering and how they influence insulation initiatives. At this moment, academic research about the political, social, and economic factors that influence the insulation of existing rental houses is limited. Therefore, this research has adopted an inductive approach to attribute to theory-generation on this subject. The aim is to explore and describe how the social structure could hinder the developments of insulation initiatives. The empirical results of this thesis can be denoted as ‘demi-regularities’ that describe certain tendencies (Auerbach & Silverstein 2003: 3-4; Baxter & Jack 20208: 544; Bryman 2008: 9, 11, 22, 466, 589; Fletcher 2017: 185).
The qualitative research approach in this thesis aims to analyse and interpret empirical data to discover meaningful tendencies. The experiences of housing corporations and their tenants are seen as important observable data to explore these often overt causal mechanisms. Moreover, solely using observable data such as policies and laws would not allow to explore the complex relations between housing corporations and their tenants that are coproduced by less directly observable factors and mechanisms. This is because policies and laws only come into being through interpretation and valuation of actors that translate it in behaviour and decisions. To conclude, interviewing housing corporations are arguably the most suitable research method to explore the experiences of housing corporations and their tenants. In addition, literature and other written data is also used to explore the context of the initiatives. (Auerbach & Silverstein 2003: 3-4; Baxter & Jack 20208: 544; Bryman 2008: 9, 11, 22, 466, 589; Fletcher 2017: 185, 188).
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4.3.3 Semi-structured in-depth interview
The vast majority of this research is based on data from semi-structured in-depth interviews. The interviews were structured in the sense that there was an interview guide with 7 open questions, of which a number of questions were accompanied by specific concepts or figures to denote the scope of the question (see Appendix 3 for the interview guide). Semi-structured interviews offer the opportunity to gain valuable knowledge about the interviewee, what the interviewee believes and experiences, and to go deeper into this. Moreover, the interviews were more flexible in the sense that follow-up questions were asked to provide clarifications of the answers or to gain more in-depth insights. After all the main questions the interviewees were asked whether they believed there were other political, social, and economic factors that had not been covered yet. This allowed for the emergence of new factors and tendencies that fell outside the scope of the theoretical framework. In addition, semi-structured interviews allowed to explore how theories and the concepts that are described in the theoretical framework support empirical practice. It also allows to formulate modifications or refinements of theories and concepts. Yet, it also allows to detect other demi-regularities that had not been described in the theoretical framework. The corona virus negatively influenced the quality of the empirical data to some extent because the interview guide was developed while the research question and theoretical framework was not fully developed yet. To prevent further delay in case it would be difficult to find interviewees during this period, the choice was made to start the interviews before the research proposal was fully developed. This resulted in an interview guide that did not address all the relevant subjects fully (Bryman 2008: 456; Fletcher 2017: 185, 188; Halperin and Heath 2017: 285-291).
Personal interviews have been most appropriate manner to conduct the interviews because experiences can be deeply addressed through follow-up questions and the observation of non-verbal cues such as body language, voice and intonation cannot be a source of information. However, it was not desirable to have personal contact because of the health situation at that time. Therefore, the interviews were conducted by phone or via a digital medium such as Skype and MS Teams, depending on the preference of the interviewee. The preference for this research was to conduct the interviews online via online mediums, using webcams and microphones. First advantage of online mediums is the ability to interact directly with the interviewee, unlike other online interview options such as email. Second, it is possible to read some signals such as body language, voice, and intonation. In doing so, account must be taken of the limitation to be able to accurately observe and interpret all signals in comparison with personal interviews due to a low quality of sound and vision (Bryman 2008: 456; Halperin and Heath 2017: 285-291).
27 On the other hand, any restrictions to conduct online interviews should be considered. The interviewee may not have been comfortable conducting these interviews in their personal environment or they may not have suitable computer skills. In these cases, the interviews are be conducted by telephone. As with personal interviews, it is possible to ask follow-up questions and offers the opportunity to ask a wide range of questions as opposed to interviews via email. However, there are also certain drawbacks to telephone interviews. First, the interviewer can detect non-verbal information to a much lesser extent. Secondly, relatively low energy levels prevail, making this type of interviewing less suitable for long questions (Bryman 2008: 456; Halperin and Heath 2017: 285-291).
At last, telephone and digital interview provided the opportunity to record the interviews, which minimizes the chance of bias when processing and analysing data. Plus, recording has the advantage of supporting the results with quotes of the interviewees. A disadvantage of these types of interviews is that the situation in which the interview and the atmosphere cannot be standardized. Another disadvantage of these types of interview were the technical difficulties with recording. The quality of some parts of the interviews very low which made it difficult to transcribe and use this data (Bryman 2008: 456; Halperin and Heath 2017: 285-291).
4.3.3.1 Selection of interviewees
For the selection of the interviewees a diverse case study approach has been used. A diverse case study provides the opportunity to explore the wide variety of barriers and causal mechanisms. Moreover, the aim of this strategy has been to achieve maximum deviation on relevant dimensions in order to observe the maximum diversity of experiences within the population. (Seawright 2006: 89, 97). The interviewees were selected based on the deviation of three types of characteristics: scale of the housing stock of the housing corporation, geographical spreading within the Netherlands and the number of inhabitants within the municipality in which the housing corporation own houses (see Appendix 4 for characteristics of the interviewees). Based on the theoretical framework it was expected that these characteristics were important for the deviation within the political, social, and economic factors of the contexts of the initiatives (Cloudt 2015: 279-283). See Appendix 5 for more information on how the respondents were found and contacted.
In total 15 interviews have been conducted of which 8 interviews where with employees of housing corporations, 5 with tenants and 2 with employees of other organisations. The number of interviews with employees of housing corporations is slightly higher than the interviews with the tenants. This higher number corrects for a lower quality of the interview data at the start of the interviewing phase due to the necessary development of interview skills and the use of the interviews to gain background knowledge. The first four interviews were conducted with employees of the
28 housing corporations so increasing the number of interviews with this group increased the quality of data available about housing corporations.
4.3.3.1 Data analysis
All the interviews are recorded and transcribed. The transcriptions were analysed using an open coding approach. For this coding, the program Atlas TI was used. The first step of the coding was to read through the transcripts without taking notes or to interpret the transcripts. A second reading of the transcripts was accompanied by noting the key terms in the interviews, which were then translated into a coding framework. Third, the codes were reviewed two times, making sure that no that the codes did not overlap and that all important phenomena were covert by the codes. The coding framework is described in Appendix 6. The main coding themes were: ‘Influence of Tenant on Design Plan’, ‘Effective Organization of Tenants’, ‘Decision-making Ability of Tenants’, ‘Compliance of Housing corporations’, ‘Hindering Governance Regulations’, ‘Support Tenants’ and ‘Difficulties Housing Corporations Investment Considerations’. The second part of the analysis entailed the comparing of the empirical data and coding with theoretical considerations which led to the finding of demi-regularities (Bryman 2008: 550-554; Fletcher 2017: 186).
4.3.3 Literature and Data
In addition, to the primary data of the interviews other written documents are used as primary and secondary data. Some secondary data was used to verify the results that have been found through the interviews. Written data is used to explore the policies that were denoted in the interviews. Additionally, written data is used to understand how these policies influenced the experiences of tenants and housing corporations.
4.4 Methodological Review
This paragraph provides a reflection on the quality and value of a research. A specific set of evaluation criteria have been developed over the years and are popular within academic research. This set consists of; external reliability, internal reliability, internal validity, and external validity. However, the suitability for qualitative research is limited because they focus on measurements and they are based on the assumption of one observable reality. The focus on measurements is slightly problematic in qualitative research because the quantification of qualitative data would reduce the ability to explore and uncover complex social structures, meanings, and relations. Plus, the focus on whether something is deterministically true or false does not fit the ontological stance of critical realism. Therefore, the review of the methodology is based on the evaluating criteria of Bryman (2008: 376-380). The main criteria are Trustworthiness and Authenticity, which have been subdivided in respectively 4, and 5 sub criteria. These criteria are used to evaluate the quality of this research (2008: 376-380).
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4.4.1 Trustworthiness
The Credibility of the research has partly been assured by the way the interviews were conducted. During the interview, the answers of the respondent where paraphrased. The respondents were then asked whether they were there answers were understood correctly for respondent validation. Also, follow-up questions were asked to further clarify the answers of the interviewees. In addition, the main findings of the analysis are shared in the form of the thesis and a Dutch summary to validate of the results. Also, the theoretical literature, and also empirical primary and secondary data, offer the opportunity to verify the results as much as possible.
To increase the Transferability of the research, the detailed information about the
interviews, the interviewees and organizations/housing corporations are denoted in Appendix 5. In addition, a description of the background of each case was provided including the projects that they were involved in and/or effected by. Plus, in which manner they were involved in the projects. This allows for the judgement of the transferability of the findings to other situations. However, these findings cannot be generalized conform external validity due to the small case selection.
The Dependability or trustworthiness of the research is assured by the recoding and transcription of the interviews. In addition, preliminary coding schemes, coding frequencies and coding reports have been maintained during each phase of the coding process to create more transparency. Plus, a list has been maintained about the correspondence with contact persons for the benefit of this thesis. These data will not be incorporated in this thesis because of the
considerations and the lengthiness of some of the data. However, this data is accessible at request. Importantly, consent must be obtained from the person in question conform Dutch privacy laws to be able share information that includes personal information.
The critical realism stance of creates difficulties for the assessment of the objectivity in a positivistic manner. Critical realism assumes that is not possible for a researcher to do bias free therefore, the indicator Confirmability is used. Confirmability requires for a researcher to be apparent that he or she has not overly allowed personal values or theoretical expectations to shape the research and the empirical results. To this end, open questions have been used in the interviews to not steer the responses of the interviewees. Plus, the recording and transcriptions limited the interpretations of the responses. And finally, the findings have been shared with the respondents to trace any miss interpretations of their responses (Bryman 2008: 376-379).
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4.3.2 Authenticity
The assessment criteria of Authenticity aims to critically assess the wider political effect the research may have (Bryman2008: 379-380). The fairness of representations of members of the social setting is relatively high due to exploration of experiences of the main stakeholders. However, other relevant actors, such as construction companies and social institutions, that are involved in insulation projects, have been left out to focus the research. The research could provide a base for ontological authenticity. Meaning that the members can gain a better understanding of their social milieu because it provides insights in how political, social, and economic factors determine their own decisions and behaviour, but also of others. Therefore, this research also supports educative authenticity by better understanding the perspectives of other actors. Whether this research has catalytic authenticity needs to be proven after publication. However, this research provides information to catalyse a transition to well insulated existing homes. And finally, this research could have tactical authenticity due to the insights in how political, social, and economic factors affect the capability of actors to behave and to make decisions (Bryman 2008: 379-380).
4.5 Theoretical and societal relevance
The theoretical relevance rests in the expansion of the role of agency in transitions theory and the Multi-Level Perspective. By combining power and the pro-environmental behaviour and decision model, this research allows to provide insight on how political, social, and economic determinants that are specific to actors and their context, shape, and hinder agency. Moreover, this creates more insight in how actors are able to shape transitions.
The societal relevance draws form the current state of an intentional transition in Dutch society that aims to lower energy demand of existing houses. Societal actors can address the hindering factors by creating insight in how stakeholders are hindered to execute these goals. Moreover, Dutch society has a better chance of tackling sustainability challenges by creating more favourable conditions for the insulation of existing properties.
