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- Pereverza, Kateryna
(författare)
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Steering sustainability transitions? Modular participatory backcasting for strategic planning in the heating and cooling sector
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Fostering sustainability transitions in the heating and cooling sector is a necessary and urgent issue. Steering mechanisms can enable coordination of actions by different actors towards common sustainability goals. Previous studies have identified requirements relevant for such steering frameworks, but have not specifically addressed planning in the highly contextual heating and cooling sector. Participatory backcasting (PB) possesses a number of relevant characteristics for use as a planning framework in this sector, but its adaptability and potential impact first need to be addressed.This thesis sought to advance strategic planning in the heating and cooling sector by improving the adaptability, transparency and reflexivity of PB processes and extending their impact beyond individuals directly involved, so-called social scales of impact. Key research objectives of the present work were to: (1) develop a strategic planning framework for the heating and cooling sector based on PB and examine its adaptability to local contexts, (2) develop methods for scenario development, selection and analysis to allow for co-informing between modelling and participatory processes within PB-based strategic planning, and (3) identify factors that could influence the social scales of the impact of participatory strategic planning processes.Objectives 1 and 2 were pursued in a multiple case study involving transdisciplinary research over one-year PB-based planning processes in Bila Tserkva, Ukraine (Case I) and Niš, Serbia (Case II). The social scales of impact (Objective 3) were studied in a single case – a Swedish project aimed at advancing the practice of long-term planning in regions ‘Region 2050’ (Case III). In all cases, both theoretical and empirical research were conducted.The study proposes a novel framework, modular participatory backcasting (mPB), for strategic planning in the heating and cooling sector. The framework integrates principles of modularity, participatory modelling, and transdisciplinarity. The results of mPB implementation in Case I and Case II suggest that the framework has acceptable adaptability to local contexts. Greater reflexivity and transparency in the scenario development, selection and analysis were achieved by developing a morphological method and implementation of participatory modelling approaches. Finally, boundary spanning individuals, collaborations and institutional plurality were identified in Case III as important factors for broadening the social scales of impact of participatory strategic planning processes.
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| 2. |
- Mäkivierikko, Aram
(författare)
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A Needs-Based Approach towards Fostering Long-term Engagement with Energy Feedback among Local Residents
- 2019
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In order to reach the current climate goals, energy consumption needs to decrease in all sectors, including households, which produce 20% of the European emissions. However, it is difficult to increase residents’ engagement in their household electricity consumption as it is an ‘invisible’ form of energy, the monetary incentives are often too small and environmental incentives are not very effective. Building on the idea that an engagement mechanism should be based on user needs, and recent research showing that social influence can be an effective way to affect consumption behaviour, this thesis examines the potential of a neighbourhood-based digital local social network providing feedback on household electricity consumption as an engagement solution. By helping neighbours to know each other better, such a network could meet the basic human need of belonging to a group, while also taking advantage of the social influence between neighbours to increase the effectiveness of the energy feedback provided.This thesis sought to: 1) Identify needs of residents that could be served by a local social network and explore whether such a network could provide a beneficial context for energy feedback; 2) identify and evaluate a set of design principles for energy feedback and use them to propose a prototype feedback design suitable for use in a local social network; and 3) design and implement a baseline study for measuring changes in aspects of social and environmental sustainability in a neighbourhood that introduction of a local social network can achieve, such as social cohesion, trust, safety, and energy attitudes and behaviour.In order to achieve these objectives, the Research Through Design methodology was used. This resulted in mixed methods research using quantitative (household survey) and qualitative (focus group interviews, stakeholder consultation workshop) methods. The research was conducted in two eco-districts in Stockholm, Sweden: Hammarby Sjöstad and Stockholm Royal Seaport.Regarding the first objective, results from the household survey indicated a need for increased interaction between neighbours in Stockholm Royal Seaport, while the focus group discussions revealed local communication needs that a local social network could meet. However, the possibility to use social influence between neighbours in increasing the intention to save energy was shown to be rather weak, possibly because of the current low level of connection between neighbours. Regarding the second objective, a set of design principles was identified using a literature study. They were used to create a design prototype of energy feedback that was presented to potential end-users in a stakeholder consultation workshop and then refined using suggestions given in the workshop. The workshop indicated support for many of the design principles as they were indirectly mentioned in the discussions. The design principle of fair feedback was further explored, suggesting use of typical household consumption as part of a fair comparison metric and when setting reduction goals.Regarding the third objective, an evaluation method with baseline survey and follow-up surveys was suggested. The household survey served as a baseline for measuring social and environmental sustainability aspects in a neighbourhood. Further research is needed on the effectiveness of a local social network as an engagement mechanism for energy feedback.
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