Social ties, homophily and heterophily in urban sustainability transitions: User practices and solar water heater diffusion in China

This paper aims to explore the potential of latecomer cities in sustainability transitions from the demand side. The case study investigates the role of users and their social ties in influencing the popularisation of solar water heaters in a latecomer city Dezhou, in contrast to a more developed counterpart, Beijing. The two cities show vast differences in user preferences towards the low-tech environmental innovation, and the stronger social ties in Dezhou facilitate the diffusion through not only frequent social learning and peer pressure, but also enhancing user-producer trust and relation. These findings suggest that latecomer cities could provide less harsh selection environments for disruptive environmental innovations and their comparatively homogenous social ties could be harnessed to empower niche development.