La fuel poverty: quale contributo della disciplina sociologica allo studio del problema

Abstract

Fuel poverty is a relatively new subject in European political agendas. With the exception of Great Britain, which has been aware of the problem for about thirty years (Walker, Day, 2012), it is only recently that other countries have started to face the matter (among others, Brunner et al., 2012; Dubois, 2012; Tirado Herrero, Ürge - Vorsatz, 2010).Indeed, while the specific subject of ‘fuel poverty’ could be connected to the more general and tricky problems of guaranteeing human rights and individual freedom – including housing (Council of Europe, 1996; European Parliament, 2001, 2014; Sen, 1997), social inequities and the distributive effects of policies (European Commission, 2010b; European Commission European Parliament et al., 2009; OECD, 2011; Sen, 1997; Stiglitz et al., 2009) when seen from a conceptual point of view, the authorities have only recently started to use the expression ‘fuel poverty’, thereby explicitly recognising that standards of energy efficiency now count as one of the factors used to define liveability of buildings (Comité économique et social européen, 2013; European Parliament, 2013). However, to date policies have been piecemeal, with no specific package addressing the problem.The dual aims of this paper are (a) to contribute to raising the awareness about the problem, currently only studied by a small circle of experts; (b) to reflect upon the role Sociology could play.