1.
2.
Brett, Nancy, 1974-
(författare)
Bridging Local Constraints and Global Priorities : The Shaping of Swedish Biogas Markets
2024
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.
3.
Ekman Burgman, Linus, 1985-
(författare)
Between Waste and Resource : Enacting Sewage Sludge as Useable Good
2024
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
In many countries, policymakers, researchers and other stakeholders have advocated that using materials previously regarded as waste as an important step towards a more sustainable future. The issue, however, is that using waste is not easy in practice. Concerns regarding safety, cleanliness, profitability, and quality are frequently raised. My focus is on Swedish sewage sludge use in agriculture, a practice which went from six percent of the total amount sewage sludge produced to 46 percent between 2002 and 2020. The main guiding question is how actors like researchers, farmer federations, industrial organizations, wastewater treatment plant operators, and public agency representatives negotiate what sewage sludge is and how it should be used. The study contributes to the emerging literature on resourcification, a theoretical approach which understands that resources become through practice. I also draw on concepts from multiple ontology research to demonstrate how complex materials like sewage sludge become a matter of political contestation. The study is based on researchers’ arguments published in scientific papers over the past fifty years, Swedish stakeholders’ opinion statements to four governmental inquiries over the past twenty years, minutes from a wastewater treatment certification organization (Revaq) from 2011 to 2022, and interviews with the expert panel initiated by the 2018 governmental sewage sludge inquiry. Analytically, I focus on how sewage sludge is related to other objects and phenomena and by that enacting what the sludge should be. I argue that farmers, wastewater treatment plant operators, researchers, and recycling companies have enacted sewage sludge as a fertilizer, partially through the establishment of a certificate. In the Swedish agricultural sector, sewage sludge has now become a usable good. This enactment, however, requires constant support to fend off the challenges presented by other ways of enacting what sewage sludge is and should become.
4.
Envall, Fredrik, 1990-, et al.
(författare)
Att energigemenskapa : Energigemenskaper som arena för klimatomställningens praktiker och politik
2023
Ingår i: Sociologisk forskning. - Linköping : Sveriges Sociologförbund. - 0038-0342 .- 2002-066X. ; 60:3-4, s. 299-325
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.
5.
Envall, Fredrik, 1990-
(författare)
Experimenting for change? : The politics of accomplishing environmental governance through smart energy pilot projects
2021
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.
6.
Envall, Fredrik, 1990-, et al.
(författare)
Technopolitics of future-making: The ambiguous role of energy communities in shaping energy system change
2024
Ingår i: Environment and Planning E. - : Sage Publications. - 2514-8486 .- 2514-8494. ; 7:2, s. 765-787
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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9.
Klitkou, Antje, et al.
(författare)
The interconnected dynamics of social practices and their implications for transformative change : A review
2022
Ingår i: Sustainable Production and Consumption. - : Elsevier. - 2352-5509. ; 31, s. 603-614
Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat) abstract
This review article analyses the interconnectedness of different fields of social practice. Our aim is to understand if and how the literature using social practice theory addresses these interrelations and how this is linked to questions of sustainability transformations. Based on our review, we suggest a framework that conceives everyday life practices of working, dwelling, mobility, eating, and recreation as closely intertwined and not changing independently of each other. As our analysis demonstrates, such a framing also contributes to better understanding the dynamics of (un)sustainable transformative change. Greater sustainability cannot be achieved by technological fixes or changes in individual behaviour alone but requires comprehensive interventions that address the interactions between practices, as these often co-evolve and co-locate, and changes need to be aligned between different practice fields. This has high relevance for understanding the development of public policy interventions that aim to increase the sustainability of everyday life. Our review shows a significant value of social practice research on the interconnectedness of different practice fields, although certain areas still appear to be somewhat neglected, such as the interconnectedness of work-related practices with other practices of everyday life. It furthermore points to the potential contribution of studies of interconnected practices to the literature on sustain ability transitions, a perspective otherwise neglected in transition studies focusing on organisational actors and institutional dimensions of socio-technical change.
10.
Mutter, Amelia, 1989-, et al.
(författare)
Competing Transport Futures : Tensions between Imaginaries of Electrification and Biogas Fuel in Sweden
2022
Ingår i: Science, Technology and Human Values. - : Sage Publications. - 0162-2439 .- 1552-8251. ; 47:1, s. 85-111
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat) abstract
The choice of fuels has frequently been at the center of debates about how a future low-carbon mobility system can be achieved. This paper introduces two visions of biogas fuels and electricity using material from interviews and documents in Swedish transport. These visions are analyzed as interrelated sociotechnical imaginaries. To better understand the way visions of biogas and electric vehicles (EVs) dynamically shape and condition each other, four dimensions of sociotechnical imaginaries are further developed: spatial boundedness, temporality, coherence and contestation, and the socio-material relations they are associated with. Imaginaries of biogas and EVs differ with respect to these characteristics. The biogas imaginary is made up of locally bounded visions of the desirable future, showing how imaginaries can be fragmented and contested, often because of their embeddedness in local socio-material systems of resource use. This local boundedness is exemplified by contrasting cases of contested biogas imaginaries in the Swedish municipalities of Linköping and Malmö. The imaginary of EVs, in contrast, is more uniform nationally and even influenced by international expectations that in the future vehicles will be shared, electric, and autonomous. The qualities of these imaginaries shape the way they interrelate and coevolve as sociotechnical changes of the transport system unfold.
