1. |
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2. |
- Brett, Nancy, 1974-
(author)
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Bridging Local Constraints and Global Priorities : The Shaping of Swedish Biogas Markets
- 2024
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)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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3. |
- Ekman Burgman, Linus, 1985-
(author)
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Between Waste and Resource : Enacting Sewage Sludge as Useable Good
- 2024
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)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.
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4. |
- Envall, Fredrik, 1990-
(author)
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Experimenting for change? : The politics of accomplishing environmental governance through smart energy pilot projects
- 2021
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)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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5. |
- Mutter, Amelia, 1989-
(author)
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Multiple Imaginaries of the Fossil Fuel Free Future : Biogas and Electricity in Swedish Urban Transport
- 2020
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- I kölvattnet av klimatkrisen har det blivit allt tydligare att det fossilbaserade transportsystemet måste genomgå en global omvandling. Många alternativ för förnyelsebara drivmedel har föreslagits, alla omgivna av föreställningar om hur dessa tekniker kommer att bidra till en bättre framtid. Dessa föreställningar påverkar utvecklingen eftersom implementeringen av varje alternativ teknik kräver uppbyggnad av mångfaldiga socio-tekniska ensembler som stöder dess användning. Som ett resultat av detta är det troligt att processen för att ersätta fossila bränslen med dessa förnybara alternativ kommer bli komplex. Avhandlingen betraktar uppkomsten av två av dessa föreställningar om förnybara bränslen och studerar visioner om biogas och el i ett svenskt sammanhang. Biogas har en lång historia som transportbränsle i Sverige där, även om den utgör en liten andel av den totala bränsleanvändningen, utgör den ändå grunden för många kommunala kollektivtrafiksystem. Elektriska fordon har blivit alltmer attraktiva när fler aktörer anammar en föreställning som ser en framtid där fordon är delade, autonoma och elektriska. Denna interaktion exemplifieras i kollektivtrafik i städer eftersom många kommuner börjar implementera elbussar i ett försök att öka energieffektiviteten och minska föroreningarna. Denna avhandling följer tre fallstudier där föreställningarna om biogas och elfordon samverkar: kollektivtrafik i städerna Linköping respektive Malmö samt en analys av det omfattande nationella policydokumentet Fossilfrihet på väg. Avhandlingen bidrar till en bredare förståelse för hur visioner kan påverka tröghet och förändring av transportalternativ inom den bredare omställningen till en fossilfri framtid.
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6. |
- Parks, Darcy, 1986-
(author)
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The Sustainable City Becomes Climate-Smart : How Smart City Ideas Reshape Urban Environmental Governance
- 2018
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)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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7. |
- Wallsten, Anna
(author)
-
Assembling the Smart Grid : On the Mobilization of Imaginaries, Users and Materialities in a Swedish Demonstration Project
- 2017
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Influential actors refer to smart grids as a revamped version of the energy systemwhen they argue for alternative energy pathways, and assign demonstration projects with the task of turning prospects about the future into functional configurations. This thesis explores notions of the smart grid future that are implicitly conveyed in Swedish smart grid strategy and planning documents. The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyse how a smart grid is assembled in a Swedish demonstration project. Inspired by Science and Technology Studies (STS), it explores this process through interviews, document studies and participant observation. By combining concepts such as sociotechnical imaginaries, material participation and translations, this study sheds light on the negotiations, tensions and struggles at play in the process of making smart grids functional. This study examines how included and excluded users make sense of the smart grid and of their own role in shaping the future. What imaginaries do the actors involved in the project draw on? What materialities take part in shaping the smart grid, and what user engagements are encouraged? The aim of the study is to seek an enhanced understanding of how smart grids are made, of the different forces that shape this process and, ultimately, of the reality of Swedish households as part of a smart grid in the making. This study shows that making a smart grid functional is not as feasible as the smart grid imaginaries suggest, and it finds potential in user engagements that are suppressed within the current market regime, which is primarily arranged around economic incentives.
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8. |
- Envall, Fredrik, 1990-, et al.
(author)
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Att energigemenskapa : Energigemenskaper som arena för klimatomställningens praktiker och politik
- 2023
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In: Sociologisk forskning. - Linköping : Sveriges Sociologförbund. - 0038-0342 .- 2002-066X. ; 60:3-4, s. 299-325
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)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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9. |
- Envall, Fredrik, 1990-, et al.
(author)
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Technopolitics of future-making: The ambiguous role of energy communities in shaping energy system change
- 2024
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In: Environment and Planning E. - : Sage Publications. - 2514-8486 .- 2514-8494. ; 7:2, s. 765-787
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)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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10. |
- Klitkou, Antje, et al.
(author)
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The interconnected dynamics of social practices and their implications for transformative change : A review
- 2022
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In: Sustainable Production and Consumption. - : Elsevier. - 2352-5509. ; 31, s. 603-614
-
Research review (peer-reviewed)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.
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11. |
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12. |
- Mutter, Amelia, 1989-, et al.
(author)
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Competing Transport Futures : Tensions between Imaginaries of Electrification and Biogas Fuel in Sweden
- 2022
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In: Science, Technology and Human Values. - : Sage Publications. - 0162-2439 .- 1552-8251. ; 47:1, s. 85-111
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)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.
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13. |
- Niskanen, Johan, 1984-
(author)
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Mainstreaming passive houses : A study of energy efficient residential buildings in Sweden
- 2018
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)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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14. |
- Niskanen, Johan, 1984-, et al.
(author)
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Mainstreaming passive houses: more gradual reconfiguration than transition
- 2022
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In: Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning. - : Routledge; Taylor & Francis. - 1523-908X .- 1522-7200. ; 24:6, s. 612-624
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Buildings are major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption. A transition to low-carbon housing requires the introduction of very energy-efficient buildings on a global scale and effective policy measures to support such a transformation. In this article, we study one such radical solution for energy-efficient buildings - the passive house - through a national case study in Sweden. We identify three societal domains where passive houses increasingly become embedded in the building sector: Firstly, the framing of passive houses in the public debate shifted from being presented as a radical alternative for a future low-carbon housing sector to being perceived as a specific low-energy building market segment. Secondly, passive houses have become part of a broader regional institutional and political context rather than a niche. Finally, passive houses have become a driving force for stricter building regulations but in a way that rather led to the assimilation of selected passive house features into existing sectoral structures. We conclude that the dynamics of change we find is rather a mainstreaming process of gradual adaptation of construction sector structures and passive houses than a radical transformation of the built environment or the diffusion of new building technology.
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15. |
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16. |
- Rohracher, Harald, Professor, 1965-
(author)
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Energiesysteme und Transitionen zur Nachhaltigkeit aus räumliche Perspektive
- 2021. - 1
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In: Energiegeographie. - Stuttgart : UTB Verlag. - 9783825253202 - 9783838553207 ; , s. 47-55
-
Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Die Veränderung eines Energiesystems ist als komplexer Prozess zu verstehen, in dem neue Technologien und Organisationen auf bestehende Infrastrukturen, Regulationen und Verhaltensweisen treffen. Der Ansatz der Sustainable Transitions versteht Transformationen von Energiesystemen als ein Zusammenspiel von Innovativen Nischen, einem etablierten soziotechnichen Regime und übergreifenden gesellschaftlichen und ökonomischen Veränderungen. Der Beitrag stellt die in der Transitionsforschung breit rezipierte Multi-Level-Perspective und deren Verbindungen zur Innovationsforschung in der Wirtschaftsgeopraphie vor. Eine geographische Perspektive stellt dabei die jeweils spezifischen Bedingungen von soziotechnischen Transitionen in Städten und Regionen in den Vordergrund.
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17. |
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18. |
- Rohracher, Harald, Professor, 1965-, et al.
(author)
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Mission incomplete: Layered practices of monitoring and evaluation in Swedish transformative innovation policy
- 2023
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In: Science and Public Policy. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0302-3427 .- 1471-5430. ; 50:2, s. 336-349
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Research and innovation policies (IPs) across Europe, particularly in Sweden, are increasingly framed by an orientation towards societal challenges, missions, and transformative change. Innovation-funding agencies are adapting to these new approaches but struggle with a host of new questions and challenges on how to re-structure public policy interventions and develop new structures for monitoring, learning, and evaluation. In this article, we investigate how this IP paradigm shift is dealt with in the IP discourse and practice in Sweden and how an incomplete shift creates mismatches and tensions with existing structures for programme evaluation and monitoring. Despite the new paradigm, the implementation of evaluation strategies mostly follows a traditional 'summative' framing. The ongoing discussions in Swedish IP demonstrate that a paradigm shift towards transformative innovation cannot unfold its potential unless it is also followed by a shift in the practices of programme implementation and evaluation.
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19. |
- Rohracher, Harald, Professor, 1965-, et al.
(author)
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Zur Wissenspolitik von Smart Grid Experimenten
- 2021. - 1
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In: In digitaler Gesellschaft. - Bielefeld : Transcript Verlag. - 9783837654530 - 9783839454534 ; , s. 37-52
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Experimente, Pilot- oder Demonstrationsprojekte sind in den letzten Jahren zunehmend zu einem zentralen Instrument der Innovationspolitik geworden, ja sogar zu einem zentralen Kennzeichen und wissenschaftsgesellschaftlichem Dispositiv‹ unserer ›experimentellen Gesellschaft‹ (Ansell und Bartenberger 2016; Böschen et al. 2017; Engels et al. 2019). Während solche Projekttypen traditionell vor allem dem Testen und Hochskalieren von innovativen Produkten und Techniken von der Laborebene auf eine industrielle Ebene dienten, hat ein zunehmender innovationspolitischer Fokus auf gesellschaftliche Herausforderungen wie den Klimawandel Experimente mit alternativen sozio-technischen Konstellationen und in alltäglichen, anwendungsnahen Kontexten in den Vordergrund gerückt (Kivimaa et al. 2017). Räumlich begrenzte Versuche mit neuen Mobilitätsformen (z.B. autofreie Stadtteile), energieautarke Regionen oder Feldversuche zur Anwendung von autonomen Fahrzeugen sind Fälle, bei denen es nicht nur um das Testen von Produkten geht, sondern ebenso um Erfahrungen mit neuen sozialen Praktiken und institutionellen Veränderungen. Was hier auf dem Prüfstand steht, sind also ganze sozio-technische Arrangements, gesamte ›Ökosysteme‹ von z.B. Mobilität, durch die soziale Akteur*innen zu Stakeholdern des Experiments werden und zukünftige Handlungsmöglichkeiten auf dem Spiel stehen (Marres 2020). Dieser experimental turn (Overdevest et al. 2010) geht einher mit dem wachsenden Einfluss von Konzepten wie sozio-technische Transitionen (z.B. des Energie- oder Verkehrssystems), neuen ›missions-orientierten‹ Innovationsprogrammen, die sich an gesellschaftlichen Herausforderungen (grand challenges) orientieren, etwa dem neuen Forschungsrahmenprogramm der Europäischen Union, und einer wachsenden Aufmerksamkeit für ›soziale Innovationen‹ und ›Systeminnovationen‹ (Diercks et al. 2019). Mit der Einbettung solcher Experimente in reale Nutzungskontexte geht auch eine Betonung partizipativer Elemente einher, durch die Nutzer*innen und andere für das Experiment relevante Akteursgruppen stärker in die Evaluierung, Wissensgenerierung und aktive Gestaltung von Technologien und ihren Anwendungskontexten einbezogen werden sollen (Delvenne und Macq 2020). Trotz dieser partizipativen Rhetorik und des Anspruchs, soziale Lernprozesse für eine Vielzahl von Akteur*innen zu ermöglichen, wurde der tatsächliche Beitrag solcher Experimente zu technischen und gesellschaftlichen Veränderungen nur in wenigen Fällen empirisch untersucht. Dieses Kapitel will sich kritisch mit der neuen Dominanz von Experimenten in der Innovationspolitik auseinandersetzen und stellt sich die Frage, was in der Praxis solcher Experimente eigentlich passiert und inszeniert wird. Handelt es sich tatsächlich um eine weitgehend entpolitisierte und konfliktfreie Strategie zur Entwicklung neuer klimafreundlicher Energie- und Verkehrsinfrastrukturen und einer nachhaltigeren Ökonomie und Gesellschaft? Oder werden in solchen Experimenten bevorzugt bestimmte Arten von Wissen produziert, die bestimmten Akteursgruppen eher zugutekommen als anderen? Wieviel Einfluss haben Nutzer*innen und Bürger*innen tatsächlich in der Praxis dieser Projekte? Oder reflektieren die Settings und Rahmenbedingungen von Experimenten dominante gesellschaftliche Strukturen und stärken vielleicht bestehende Machtverhältnisse mehr, als dass sie neue gesellschaftliche und technische Konstellationen ermöglichen?
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20. |
- Velkova, Julia, et al.
(author)
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Smart Thermostats and the Algorithmic Control of Thermal Comfort
- 2022
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In: Everyday Automation. - London : Routledge. - 9780367773380 ; , s. 171-183
-
Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Automated decision-making (ADM) tends to be discussed as a process of delegating and automating decisions from people to machines in the context of automation. This chapter shows instead how ADM can function as a mediating algorithmic logic that manages and generates new relationships between actors, and economies of value that may not pre-exist or are in the process of being automated. We develop this argument drawing on empirical work from an experiment with ADM in Sweden that sought to optimise and steer heat provision in everyday life through ‘smart’ thermostats. Our approach is informed by science and technology studies and perspectives on socio-technical experiments, considering them as generative of new environments and social relationships. We show how experiments with ADM where algorithms take decisions about the steering of thermal provision in everyday life can redefine the understanding of control, and power relationships between energy companies, data-driven economies, and people brought together through a common concern about temperature.
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