| 1. |
- Feiz, Roozbeh, 1975-, et al.
(författare)
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Biogas Potential for Improved Sustainability in Guangzhou, China : A Study Focusing on Food Waste on Xiaoguwei Island
- 2019
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Ingår i: Sustainability. - : MDPI. - 2071-1050. ; 11:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- As a result of rapid development in China and the growth of megacities, large amounts of organic wastes are generated within relatively small areas. Part of these wastes can be used to produce biogas, not only to reduce waste-related problems, but also to provide renewable energy, recycle nutrients, and lower greenhouse gases and air polluting emissions. This article is focused on the conditions for biogas solutions in Guangzhou. It is based on a transdisciplinary project that integrates several approaches, for example, literature studies and lab analysis of food waste to estimate the food waste potential, interviews to learn about the socio-technical context and conditions, and life-cycle assessment to investigate the performance of different waste management scenarios involving biogas production. Xiaoguwei Island, with a population of about 250,000 people, was chosen as the area of study. The results show that there are significant food waste potentials on the island, and that all studied scenarios could contribute to a net reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Several socio-technical barriers were identified, but it is expected that the forthcoming regulatory changes help to overcome some of them.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Niskanen, Johan, 1984-
(författare)
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Mainstreaming passive houses : A study of energy efficient residential buildings in Sweden
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The passive house concept has become increasingly popular in the building sector in the lost twenty years ond is deemed to ploy on important role in aligning the housing sector with climate and environmental policy objectives. However, for such buildings to ploy this port they need to be more widespread, more common and more accepted by mainstream actors and institutions. The deployment of passive houses involves changes and adaptations in different parts of society. It involves changes in institutional and organisational set-ups, and it involves market and regulatory changes. Previous research on passive houses has focused on demonstration projects or has taken for granted that a dissemination will lead to a full-scale transition of the building sector. This puts undue focus on emerging actors and technologies emerging in isolation. This thesis investigates the wider deployment of passive houses with a focus on mainstreaming. This means that focus is on different social arenas where the deployment of passive houses is negotiated between multiple actors. This thesis contributes to a comprehensive picture of how passive house deployment is shaped through a study of attempts to mainstream these buildings in Sweden. It shows how such attempts hove been partially successful in specific companies and regions, but it also show how a normalization of these buildings has been limited due to market, regulatory, and political developments
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| 4. |
- Parks, Darcy, 1986-, et al.
(författare)
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From sustainable to smart : Re-branding or re-assembling urban energy infrastructure?
- 2019
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Ingår i: Geoforum. - : Elsevier. - 0016-7185 .- 1872-9398. ; 100, s. 51-59
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Visions of sustainable cities have increasingly been substituted by the ambition to become a ‘smart city’ in recent years. Ongoing scholarly discussions often focus on how sustainability and ‘smartness’ relate to each other conceptually, to which extent smart city technologies contribute to making cities more sustainable, and calls to prioritise social issues over technology. The questions of how this ‘shift to smart’ has unfolded, and how it has reshaped strategies and interventions to make cities and their energy infrastructures more sustainable, have however been much less investigated. The aim of this article is to zoom in on the dynamics of such a shift from sustainable to smart. The cities of Malmö and Graz have strong profiles as sustainable cities and have both begun to use smart city branding. We build our analysis on argumentative discourse theory and the concept of socio-material assemblages. Along with a discursive shift from sustainable cities to smart cities, we also observe changes in institutions and socio-material practices. We identify appropriation and colonisation as two dynamics that characterise the relations between assemblages of sustainable and smart cities. We conclude that even when smart city discourses are appropriated by actors in existing sustainable city assemblages, the discursive shift might eventually allow smart city assemblages to colonise existing institutions and socio-material practices. But the shift does not take place through explicit controversy between two discourse coalitions, and it therefore remains important to further investigate the conditions that allow for a change in dynamics from appropriation to colonisation.
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| 5. |
- Parks, Darcy, 1986-
(författare)
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The Sustainable City Becomes Climate-Smart : How Smart City Ideas Reshape Urban Environmental Governance
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The idea of smart cities has become enormously popular during the past decade. Environmental governance is one issue in which smart city ideas seem to hold potential. However, there is an incredible variety in what it means for a city to be ‘smart’. For some, it involves the use of information and communication technology (ICT) to solve problems; for others, it has more to do with economic growth and city branding. Many social science researchers have criticised the idea of smart cities. They worry that it might allow multinational corporations to take control of municipal governance and lead to an undue focus on technological solutions to societal issues. However, only a few previous studies have examined the influence on urban environmental governance in practice. This thesis investigates the influence of smart city ideas on urban environmental governance through a study of Hyllie, a climate-smart city district in Malmö, Sweden. It applies a theoretical perspective based on science and technology studies and the concept of assemblage. It combines participant-observation of inter-organisational meetings, interviews with professionals and document analysis. This thesis contributes a more comprehensive picture of which actors influence the direction of the climate-smart city—beyond the usual suspects of municipal governments and multinational companies. Still, it shows how ICT-based smart city solutions have taken precedence in urban environmental governance at the expense of energy efficiency and renewable energy.
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| 6. |
- Rohracher, Harald, 1965-
(författare)
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Analyzing the Socio-Technical Transformation of Energy Systems : The Concept of 'Sustainability Transitions'
- 2018
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Ingår i: Oxford Handbook of Energy and Society. - Oxford : Oxford University Press. - 9780190633851 ; , s. 45-60
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Dealing with the immense societal challenges of climate change and resource depletion requires no less than a fundamental transformation of the energy system, comprising not only technological change, but also cultures of energy use and consumption, new regulations, and new types of actors operating on the energy market. A growing field of interdisciplinary social science research on “sustainability transitions” deals with the dynamics and governance of such transformative, systemic, and socio-technical change processes toward sustainability. This chapter gives an overview of concepts used to study energy system transitions, their strengths and shortcomings, as well as new advancements. The chapter also discusses a concrete example of socio-technical change in the field of renewable energy—wind power—and reflects on some of the lessons that can be drawn from this about the interdependence of energy and society and for an understanding of transitions toward a more sustainable energy system.
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| 8. |
- Rohracher, Harald, 1965-
(författare)
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Science and Technology Studies, History of
- 2015. - 2nd
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Ingår i: International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. - Oxford : Elsevier. - 9780080970875 ; , s. 200-205
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The interdisciplinary field of science and technology studies (STS) has only emerged in the late 1970s but has been influenced by various lines of thought in sociology, philosophy, and economics. At its basis is the claim that not only the social institution of science or the impact of technological change on society is open to social analysis but also the very content of science and engineering, i.e., scientific facts and technological objects. This article sketches out the development of STS from its roots, among others in the sociology of knowledge and history of technology, to contemporary issues such as the problem of expertise and transformations in the production of knowledge.
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| 9. |
- Rohracher, Harald, 1965-, et al.
(författare)
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Sustainable innovation as a challenge for urban governance
- 2019
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Ingår i: Handbook of Sustainable Innovation. - Cheltenham : Edward Elgar Publishing. - 9781788112567 - 9781788112574 ; , s. 268-280
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- As cities increasingly turn into key players of climate change mitigation, urban innovations for sustainability move to the centre of interest. A general characteristic of such innovations is that they aim at the systemic transformation of socio-technical configurations and infrastructures in cities towards more sustainability. The proximity and high density of interconnections in cities are conducive to innovations reaching across infrastructure sectors, such as the integration of electric vehicles in smart electricity grids. Urban initiatives to generate sustainable innovations are often framed as ‘urban laboratories’ or set up as sustainable model districts focusing e.g. on car free living or the increased integration of ICT in smart city districts. In this chapter we will work out the characteristics of transformative urban sustainability innovations and emphasise some of the challenges of governing sustainable urban change. As an empirical illustration we will discuss the development of a Smart City district in Vienna.
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| 10. |
- Späth, Philipp, et al.
(författare)
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Conflicting strategies towards sustainable heating at an urban junction of heat infrastructure and building standards
- 2015
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Ingår i: Energy Policy. - : Elsevier. - 0301-4215 .- 1873-6777. ; 78, s. 273-280
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Approaches to ‘sustainability transitions’ stress the possibility of aligning actors around a shared vision of the future, e.g. at the scale of a city. Empirical accounts reveal how difficult such coordination often is due to contradictory views involved. How can we better understand related processes of searching and negotiation? What does this mean for the organization of decision making processes regarding long-term infrastructural change? We analyze a conflict which erupted in Freiburg, Germany when two strategies of reducing environmental impacts of space heating were to be applied in the Vauban ‘model district’: A) Efficient co-generation of heat and power (CHP) combined with district heating systems (DHS), and B) Reducing heat demand by low-energy designs and ambitious energy standards (‘passive house standard’). In order to understand the politics of infrastructure development, we unravel 1) enabling factors and driving forces of the conflict, 2) normative content of opposing viewpoints, 3) resources tapped into for settling the disagreement, and 4) the institutional setup of such decision making about energy policy priorities in the municipality. We reflect on implications of such a perspective on how policies and how governance arrangements should ideally be shaped and take a brief outlook on further research needed.
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