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- Brett, Nancy, 1974-
(författare)
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Bridging Local Constraints and Global Priorities : The Shaping of Swedish Biogas Markets
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Biogas offers a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels, promoting circularity and local economic growth. It is, therefore, increasingly prioritised by decision-makers within Sweden and the EU. Despite its advantages, the Swedish market is perceived as underachieving in terms of scale and penetration. Biogas, a socio-technical system, has necessitated state and regional support for its establishment and expansion, given its competition with entrenched fossil fuels and its inherent material limitations. This thesis primarily seeks to explore how the interplay of political, societal, and market perspectives has influenced the biogas market. The research zeroes in on the Swedish biogas market, with a special focus on the impact of geographical regions on market shaping. Using in part a longitudinal case study revealed that historically, successful regions have relied heavily on translations of missions and visions for developing the biogas markets. These translations were found to build heavily on local concerns and local resources. The consequence of this meant that the global context of the climate problem was not always the focus of policy and strategies. The significance of local interpretation was further unveiled as a component of value creation, where value is closely tied to the material and social conditions of local geographies. Value creation for intricate systems like biogas, which are multifunctional and span various social domains, indicates that biogas and biofertilisers are entities that are both naturally and socially constructed, underlining the impossibility of separating the natural from the social. The socio-material properties were important for biogas market shaping, as shown by tracing both biogas and biofertilisers. The connections between methane and fossil gas were found to be positive and negative for the biogas market. The reliance on fossil gas has created conditions that allow the biogas market to expand. However, the narrative of fossil gas as a bridge has, at times, led to doubts about biogas, and there is a risk that instead of biogas greening fossil gas, fossil gas has a ‘browning’ effect on the biogas market. For biofertiliser, the socio-material was found to be in a phase of change. It was found that the biogas market has been built for the energy market, but increasingly, it is important to consider the role of biofertiliser in this market. What was previously considered to be a by-product and a problem for the producers, is increasingly seen as an asset. Similar to the findings of the connection between fossil gas and biomethane, this is a change in social framings more than a change in the material. The movement from waste to by-product to an asset can be an important view both empirically and theoretically to foreground that for an object to be understood as valuable or sustainable, work is needed. This highlighted that markets do not simply appear, and objects are not inherently valuable or sustainable. It is instead an interplay between the social, material, and technical, which (re)shapes products and their markets. Lastly, this thesis, through the lens of marketisation, traced the concerns of the bio-gas market. It found that the biogas market is still evolving often referred to as a hot market. The boundaries of the market, including what is considered an externality, are still being defined. While this doesn’t fully account for the slow growth, it does enable stakeholders to use this understanding to influence the market’s development. As the biogas market changes, along with other factors such as the role of fossil gas, the impact of material changes with liquified biogas, and the growth of the concentrated biofertiliser market, it’s evident that the narratives will shift. This thesis adds to the empirical literature on renewable energy by emphasising that regions that depend on creating value for their citizens by promoting a local narrative will need to adapt to reflect the new material realities. This will influence both how valuation processes are conducted and the use of missions and visions by both the public and private sectors.
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- Cakici, Baki, 1984-
(författare)
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The Informed Gaze : On the Implications of ICT-Based Surveillance
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Information and communication technologies are not value-neutral. I examine two domains, public health surveillance and sustainability, in five papers covering: (i) the design and development of a software package for computer-assisted outbreak detection; (ii) a workflow for using simulation models to provide policy advice and a list of challenges for its practice; (iii) an analysis of design documents from three smart home projects presenting intersecting visions of sustainability; (iv) an analysis of EU-financed projects dealing with sustainability and ICT; (v) an analysis of the consequences of design choices when creating surveillance technologies. My contributions include three empirical studies of surveillance discourses where I identify the forms of action that are privileged and the values that are embedded into them. In these discourses, the presence of ICT entails increased surveillance, privileging technological expertise, and prioritising centralised forms of knowledge.
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- Dóczi, Gabriella, et al.
(författare)
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Knowledge management in transition management : The ripples of learning
- 2022
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Ingår i: Sustainable cities and society. - : Elsevier BV. - 2210-6707. ; 78
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite the extensive literature on learning in urban transitions, we still have a limited understanding on how higher-order learning takes place in transition management and is spread within the transition arena. In this paper we analyze the efforts of transferring such embedded knowledge and its interrelation with learning through the examples of three Swedish municipalities engaged in urban transition management. To do so, we developed a framework of learning ripples that conceptualizes learning across social boundaries as an active and two-way process that goes beyond transferring and receiving knowledge, but also requires higher order learning that includes knowledge integration in the form of defining and formulating one's role and contributions to transitions. We found that higher order learning is largely influenced by the quality and frequency of interactions between the transferer and receivers. The further a stakeholder was located from the center of the transition arena in terms of direct interactions, the less chance occurred for higher order learning that resulted in tensions and conflicts in the collaboration. Our results show the problem as a lack of knowledge integration or a lack of conditions which allow stakeholders to articulate their views or develop an idea about their own role in the whole process.
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- Envall, Fredrik, 1990-, et al.
(författare)
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Att energigemenskapa : Energigemenskaper som arena för klimatomställningens praktiker och politik
- 2023
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Ingår i: Sociologisk forskning. - Linköping : Sveriges Sociologförbund. - 0038-0342 .- 2002-066X. ; 60:3-4, s. 299-325
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- I denna artikel undersöks energigemenskaper som en arena inom vilken möjligheterna till en mer rättvis och demokratiskt orienterad klimatomställning tar form. Mer specifikt utforskas hur energigemenskaper i Sverige utkristalliseras mot bakgrund av EU:s Ren Energi-paket, där dessa utpekats som ett viktigt verktyg för ett utökat medborgardeltagande och en fördjupad demokratisering. Med avstamp i kritisk samhällsvetenskaplig miljöforskning undersöks det svenska landskapet av energigemenskaper som ett diskursivt slagfält där sociomateriella arrangemang och aktörsintressen formeras. Särskild uppmärksamhet ägnas åt aktörers politiska klangbotten för engagemang, de ideologiska bevekelsegrunder som kommer till uttryck, de förändringsstrategier som sätts i spel, och de allianser som bildas. Detta är av miljösociologiskt intresse för att undersöka hur lovvärda ambitioner och visioner om ett klimatneutralt samhälle omsätts i praktiken samt för att belysa maktrelationer som annars riskerar osynliggöras. Vi finner att svenska energigemenskaper generellt tvingas förhålla sig till en dominerande innovationsorienterad diskurs med avpolitiserande effekt. Samtidigt florerar en mångfald andra sätt att “energigemenskapa,” vilka återspeglar värden som avviker från den dominerande diskursen.
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- Envall, Fredrik, 1990-
(författare)
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Experimenting for change? : The politics of accomplishing environmental governance through smart energy pilot projects
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis investigates how smart energy experimentation arranges environmental governance in Sweden, focusing on the politics of such processes, against the background of an escalating environmental and climate crisis that necessitates urgent energy transformation. Empirically the thesis includes case studies of pilot projects in Stockholm, Malmö, Västerås, and on Gotland, and analysis of the policy landscape, mainly through text analysis and interviews. Theoretically the study takes a critical approach based on a Foucauldian understanding of governance. Concepts are derived from “governmentality studies” and science and technology studies. This approach aims to unpack experimentation as governance arrangement through asking questions about how governance is arranged beyond singular experiments, such as ideas and practices of achieving broader change beyond isolated experiments. The thesis shows how smart energy experimentation is incorporated into an existing governmental apparatus and underpinned by a broader political rationality, a “rationale of governance” crystallized in institutional arrangements and policy instruments. This political rationality underpins governance arrangements shaped through experimentation both across governmental agencies and policy networks and on a local level. The investigation also highlights contingencies of arranging governance across cases as ambitions are materialized, as well as the significance of different local contexts and the import of infrastructures on how governance is produced. The main contribution is a theoretical conceptualization of “experimentation” as arranging environmental governance, and empirically uncovering how governance is shaped beyond singular experiments in a contemporary Swedish context. Such analysis is currently lacking in the literature on environmental politics and energy transitions. The thesis thus elucidates how power relations are shaped through smart energy experimentation, contributing to shaping knowledge generation and interpretation of environmental issues, thus institutionalizing particular ways of handling environmental issues and improving the environmental condition.
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| 10. |
- Envall, Fredrik, 1990-, et al.
(författare)
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Technopolitics of future-making: The ambiguous role of energy communities in shaping energy system change
- 2023
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Ingår i: Environment and Planning E. - : Sage Publications. - 2514-8486 .- 2514-8494.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Implementing the EU Clean Energy Package (CEP) and its provisions for strengthening energy communities – the cooperative production and management of energy at local level by citizens, a concept emphasising citizen participation and empowerment – has opened a new arena for contestations over energy futures in Sweden. An aim of CEP is to contribute to just energy transitions through citizen participation and democratisation by using the potential of energy communities to reconfigure socio-material relations of the energy system. However, different actor constellations claim interpretative privilege about the role and importance of energy communities in a low-carbon future. To better understand political contestations over energy futures, we unpack broader discursive patterns and their socio-material enactments related to legally define and regulate the operation of energy communities in Sweden. Through the analytical lens of socio-technical imaginaries and technopolitics, we explore struggles over energy futures within conduits of institutionalised policymaking and attempts by energy communities to navigate technopolitical barriers in relation to grid infrastructure, power relations, actor constellations, rules and regulations and knowledge claims. We find that energy communities are not easily accommodated to the dominant socio-technical imaginary of Sweden’s energy future. What is at stake in processes related to the transposition of the CEP into national law is essentially different political ideas of how society should be organised.
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