Workshops provide a flexible approach to study complex issues through socio-material practices and this paper discusses the methodological considerations involved in doing research through workshops. The paper builds on two research projects where workshops were used to study the practices of professionals’ use of digital tools at a consultancy firm and the everyday life of residents in a newly built city district. While the workshops targeted different groups and had different forms, they both made use of material expressions to visualise everyday practices. We reflect on how we can make use of workshops to study professional and everyday practices and how knowledge is enacted in the different workshops. Building on a socio-material relations approach we discuss our choices in designing workshops, the analytical processes involved and the consequences these choices have on what knowledge we create in interaction with the participants.

Making buildings more energy efficient is an important part of achieving the European Union's energy and climate goals, which several directives, policies, and measures has addressed over the years. This paper aims to study changes over a 10-year period in perception on barriers to and drivers for energy efficiency in the Swedish building sector and identifying success factors. The data collection consists of surveys conducted in 2010 and 2020 among organizations that mainly build, own, and manage multi-dwelling buildings. Besides the overall result, special focus is given to changes depending on type of ownership, size of organization, and organizational hierarchy. Lack of time or other priorities and slim organizations remain the most important barriers, which is most evident among small organizations. Reducing cost remains the major driver. The uncertainty surrounding a rising energy price has diminished and cost-effective solutions are more adaptable. More capital for energy efficiency is available, particularly in the private sector. Furthermore, the result acknowledges the impact of regulatory measures. The study recognizes a connection between organizational development and the integration of energy efficiency in an organizations’ agenda. Future challenges are related to hidden costs and knowledge acquisition.

Urban areas play an important role in attaining the sustainability and energy goals set by municipalities. Despite the often ambitious sustainability visions and goals for new urban areas, there is limited understanding of how these aspirations are integrated into the planning and development process. This paper aims to provide insights into how energy-related visions and goals, in a new district in Sweden, are formulated and further translated into instruments employed by the municipality. Brunnshög, a new sustainability-profiled district in Lund envisioned to become a leading example of sustainable urban development, is used as a case study. The district’s long-term energy goal is to generate more energy than what is used, emphasizing a strong focus on energy efficiency and local renewable energy generation. Key to Brunnshög’s energy strategy is the implementation of the world’s largest low-temperature district heating network supplied with excess heat from two high-tech research facilities. The planning process for Brunnshög began in 2006 and the district is expected to be completed in 2055, accommodating an estimated 40,000 residents and workers.

Adopting a municipal planning perspective, this paper combines analysis of planning documents with interviews conducted with developers and the municipality’s project manager for Brunnshög. The results provide an overview of how the energy-related visions and goals for Brunnshög have been included in the planning documents for the district and describe the utilization of three instruments used by the municipality to achieve these visions and goals: (1) collaboration contract with the local energy company, (2) land allocation competitions, and (3) sustainability agreements with the developers.

The formulation of visions and goals for Brunnshög, divided into long-term visionary goals and more immediate operational goals, allows for adjustments of specific aspects based on changing circumstances while still maintaining a commitment to broader visions and goals. The translation of energy goals into commitments is an evolving process, with the level of ambition influenced by factors such as the demand for housing and office space, competition among developers, and prevailing sustainability trends. This paper concludes that the integration of sustainability criteria into land allocation competitions is a powerful instrument for driving ambitious building projects. However, in contexts where the municipality lacks ownership of the land or faces subdued market conditions, there is a need for additional tools to be developed. Furthermore, sustainability agreements with developers serve as an important tool to track the sustainability commitments made in land allocation competitions. However, implementing a more systematic review and evaluation of these agreements, including long-term assessments, is necessary to learn from the experiences and hold the actors accountable. The findings of this study contribute to a better understanding of how energy goals can be sustained throughout lengthy urban development processes. Insights gained from development processes such as Brunnshög are essential for implementing the necessary changes to decrease the climate impact of new urban development projects and to mainstream the practices of sustainable urban development.

Over the past decade, the field of design for sustainable behaviour (DfSB) has gained agrowing amount of research interest. However, as the field evolves, new challenges also arise.A suitable unit of analysis is needed to contextualize users’ behaviour issues in a broadersocio-cultural and long-term perspective. This paper explores the use of activity theory(AT) as a potential lens for guiding empirical analysis and design exploration in DfSB. Byemploying a meta-synthesis approach, we systematically search and synthesize existingstudies that adopted AT in design for sustainability. Key findings show that AT’s principlesand theoretical implications are especially useful for helping design researchers frame andaddress DfSB challenges. We argue that by taking activity as the unit of analysis, the AT lenscan enable researchers to incorporate users’ dynamic, multi-level and complex activitysystems into DfSB considerations.

Design has long been regarded as an effective tool to create and foster individual and societal changes. When design meets the opportunity to transform people’s behaviour and habits, only focusing on the change aspect might be insufficient, the retention aspect also can have a crucial role to play in guiding people’s sustainable lifestyles. This paper aims to fill this knowledge gap by shifting the lens from design for sustainable change to design for sustainable retention. In order to understand the role that the design of artefacts can play in retaining individuals’ desired behaviour through context change transitions, first, we briefly summarize insights from the literature published in the design for sustainable behaviour (DfSB) field. Following that, astronauts’ Earth-bound food consumption on the International Space Station (ISS) is taken as an explorative case study. By analysing the case study results through an activity analytical approach, we find that the effects of change do not always necessarily interfere with the effects of retention. Rather, they are compatible entities that can mutually affect the development of new behaviour and habits. We argue that design to facilitate change is not the only path that leads to users’ sustainable behaviour, retaining people’s existing ecologically desired behaviour can also open up windows of opportunity to embed sustainable design interventions in people’s daily activities. This paper concludes with a call for further explorations of design opportunities and challenges for retaining people’s existing ecologically desired behaviour.

Recent developments in eco-design have shown a growing interest in incorporating user perspectives in sustainable product and service design. However, users’ needs and behavior are not static, but under a dynamic transition process. Design purely informed by user needs thus may lead to environmental and social sustainability issues. In this paper, we approach this sustainable design challenge from an activity theoretical perspective. First, we conducted a literature review on the use of activity theory (AT) in sustainable design-related studies. Based on the literature insights, we translated the abstract AT concepts into more descriptive and practical design implications. Following that, we developed an activity-centered design (ACD) toolkit prototype to support design practitioners in integrating users’ dynamic activities with specific sustainable design goals in the early-stage design ideation process. Finally, we evaluated the practical use of the toolkit with both design experts and participants without a design background in a case study. Results indicated that the ACD toolkit prototype allowed participants to engage with complex sustainability issues while taking multiple aspects of users’ activity into account. It also offered an interactive way for designers to better develop early-stage design ideas to solve sustainability-related problems from a product and service design perspective. 

Context change is regarded as an opportunity to intervene people's daily doings towards a sustainable direction. Looking at this opportunity from a product and service design perspective, in order to introduce design interventions, the question of how people actually transit their behavioural routines when they are undergoing context change. As the first step to approach this question, in the paper we present the use of activity theory as a theoretical lens to systematically describe and analyze the process and outcomes that context change has in influencing people's daily doings. First, we report in detail on how we construct an activity based analytical approach to analyze the transition and development process when people are undergoing context change. Then, we illustrate the practical use of our model in a case study for understanding the influences that context change has in South-East Asian exchange students' food consumption activities. In the end, we summarize our findings and reflections in terms of the holistic and in-depth insights the activity perspective can provide.

On-pack date and storage labeling is one of the direct information carriers used by the food industry to communicate product shelf-life attributes to consumers. However, it is also one of the major factors that contribute to consumer food waste issues. This study aims to systematically understand the existing tensions within the current date and storage labeling system and explore the potential opportunities for design to intervene. First, we conducted a literature review to identify tensions that the consumer encounters in their food edibility assessment system and summarize the corresponding proposal for actions. 12 tensions and 16 proposals for action were identified and further framed according to a conceptual model developed in this study. Following this, the literature findings were refined and grounded in co-creation sessions in consumer workshops and industry practitioner interviews to develop specific labeling-related design implications. The findings indicate the importance of investigating the role that date and storage labeling play from a system level. Furthermore, we suggest that the conceptual model developed in this study can be used not only as a framework that guides researchers to identify and analyze labeling-related food waste problems that each individual consumer encounters, but also as a guideline that assists packaging design practitioners in exploring potential design opportunities to solve the problem from a system perspective.

Borders are essential in the current planning of cities since new forms of social relations are needed to support more sustainable ways of life. In this article, we present a case study of a sustainability-profiled new neighbourhood, Vallastaden in Sweden. We focus on how sustainability is enacted in different socio-material versions, which often include defusing borders between private and shared spaces. Shared space in Vallastaden includes spaces to facilitate meetings, such as felleshus (built as semi-communal, ground-level buildings, semi-indoor spaces, and greenhouses), winter gardens (built as rooftop, semi-private, semi-indoor, and social spaces), and the shared brook-park Broparken and farm-park Paradiset with rental allotments and communal gardens. Analysing how bordering practices create inclusion and exclusion, we study their consequences for the everyday lives of humans and non-humans in Vallastaden. We conceptualise these dynamics as fluid and fire space in order to make the ontological politics of bordering visible. Our study shows that the borders in the planned shared spaces are dynamic and create both fluid and fire space, depending on their socio-material relations. The research shows that planners need to take these heterogeneous socio-material relations into account when creating borders because, otherwise, they risk creating unfair exclusions.

Feelings of homeliness are built on a variety of good relations, such as to the surrounding society, with your family members and the place called home. However, not all buildings are constructed to facilitate good relations for all as individuals have different needs in relationships. In a city district framed as a role model for social sustainability and an inspiration for building designs, shared spaces in wintergardens, large glass windows in homes, laundry rooms and recycling rooms invite some relations, while excluding others. In this paper we will focus on how glass as a building material affect the relations between residents, everyday practices, the neighborhood and the built environment. The increasing use of glass in architecture is an outcome of a reach into the building design from a range of different factors, such as architectural trends, safety measures and social sustainability efforts. Exploring glass through the concept topological reach (Allen, 2016) will make the ontological politics embedded in the building designs visible and in turn show what relations are made possible.

This article explores how sustainability is made present and visible in the life of residents in a new neighbourhood. Glass is enacted by design professionals and a Swedish municipality to create spaces for residents that fulfil sustainability objectives and put daily life on display. However, some practises developed by residents resist the intended uses of these spaces. Through a detailed case study of the proclaimed new role model neighbourhood of Vallastaden in Linkoping, Sweden, we critically investigate the ontological politics of the residents everyday life, including their social life with neighbours, low-energy living, interactions with local small businesses, recycling habits and mobility habits. By attending to glass, we show how humans, non-humans, materials and technologies become part of everyday practises and help uncover the ontological politics of mundane life.

One factor influencing quality development in the building industry is the ability of

users, such as residents, to identify and express their requirements for the product,

i.e., the residential building. Drawing on a study of the development of user

involvement in designing, producing, and managing building projects, this paper

focuses on user participation in the front-end activities of residential projects. To map

current perceptions and approaches, building industry actors met in four focus

groups. Group participants were asked to reflect on the definition of user, how

communication is handled, how information from users is used, and challenges and

opportunities in involving the user. Regardless of level of experience, participants

agreed on the importance and potential of user involvement and on the need for

specific methods to acquire useful outputs.

One factor influencing quality in the building industry is the ability of users, such as residents, to identify and express their requirements for the product, i.e. the residential building. However, the handling of communication with users in building projects has been insufficiently specified and studied. Drawing on a study of user involvement in building project design, production, and management, this paper examines user involvement in Swedish residential projects. To map current perceptions and approaches, building industry actors met in four focus groups. Group participants were asked to reflect on the definition of users, communication handling, how information from users is used, and challenges and opportunities in user involvement. Our initial emphasis was front-end activities, but focus group results revealed that user involvement was a continuous process extending from project initiation to evaluating the finished project as a basis for future projects. Discussions indicated confusion about who constituted users in various situations but, regardless of level of experience, focus group participants agreed on the importance and potential of user involvement and on the need for specific methods to acquire useful input.

This thesis explores building processes in the south of Sweden with the aim to accomplish low energy housing in accordance with the German standard for passive houses. In this thesis, the passive house is regarded as an innovative en-ergy concept which has been introduced to Sweden and to a conservative sector. The purpose of the study is to provide an understanding of processes in the im-plementation of an innovation for energy-saving dwellings. The process is recon-structed with data from interviews, minutes, articles, reports, etc, and presented as stories of different sequences including how the housing projects were organised, how the energy concept was established among the participants, how decisions were made and what messages were presented about the energy concept in mass media.

The energy concept is followed in a process of transformation where it was subject to five fundamental acitivites: decomposition, moulding, composition, transportation and storage. The concepts originate from a time-geography per-spective, founded and developed by the Swedish geographer Torsten Hägerstrand. The energy concept was decomposed at a specific local context and transported to another, where it was moulded and composed into a new energy concept. The new energy concept was stored in a new setting. By following the trajectories of peo-ple and technologies, conclusions about the energy concept can be drawn. The building proprietors chose less conventional ways of managing the building proc-ess in order to have more control. The projects were started by people who them-selves had their own experience of passive houses. Solar collectors were loosely coupled to the energy concept and needed technology carriers.

Arts-based research has been presented in previous publications and scrutinized in relation to conventional methods for academic empirical work, data collection and analyses. In this paper we propose an arts- and artist-integrated research approach as an interdisciplinary method in all parts of a research project empirically focusing on the use of hot tap water in homes. In our approach we integrate a professional artist who works with different media and techniques, has a critical and expressive language of form and explores human and nonhuman relationships, vulnerable groups, gender issues and affectional environments. The researchers have interdisciplinary backgrounds, in the humanities and social sciences, and are experienced in ethnographic work and collaborations with artists in various ways. Our art- and artist-integrated research approach includes the entire research process, from the early ideas, a pilot one-year-project, continuous work with research proposals, group discussions, an external advisory group, and planned arts- and research activities throughout the current three year research project. In this paper, we include questions about the material and the spatial, how to explore the use of hot tap water in people’s intimate spheres at home, how to be sensitive to the many versions of use enacted in hot water practices, the political connotations, how to explore and analyser the field from Mol’s political ontology and the choreography of practices and relationships. An open approach to facilitate continuous interactions and new relations between researchers and artist is key, but what are the risks, drawbacks and pitfalls we should consider at this early stage of the research project?

Kan kunskap om människors vardagliga aktiviteter användas för att nå närmare målet om minskad energiförbrukning i  hushållssektorn?(Kajsa Ellegård: Hushåll, energi och vardagliga aktiviteter, I J Palm & K Ellegård (red), Energi och IT. Carlssons, Stockholm, 2008, s.141-171)Inom ramen för den frågeställning Kajsa Ellegård ställer sig finns två grundläggande definitionsproblem man måste ta ställning till innan man ger sig i kast med forskningen, nämligen aktörsperspektivet som en makro eller mikrofråga och variabeln hushåll i stället för familj. I sin forskning kring energianvändning väljer Kajsa vardagslivet i hemmet som sitt perspektiv och aktiviteter i hushållet som sin analysenhet, dvs. mikroperspektivet på aktiviteter i den grupp individer som lever i samma bostad och är ekonomiskt ansvariga för de aktiviteter som försiggår där. Tillsammans med Kajsa har jag under ett antal år samarbetat i forskningsprojekt kring energieffektivisering i vardagen inom bostadssektorn. Min forskningsfråga har varit formulerad ur ett annat perspektiv på i grunden samma vardagliga aktiviteter, nämligen hur medvetna är hushållsmedlemmar om sin energikonsumtion, vilken kunskap och vilka attityder har man kring sitt energibeteende och med vilka typer av styrmedel kan man öka potentialerna för energieffektivisering i bostaden, dvs. ett aggregerat makroperspektiv på individers aktiviteter. Den kunskap de båda perspektiven ger behövs för att förstå vardagen, men också för att i samhälleliga processer påverka och förändra kunskap, värderingar och beteende kring användningen av energi som ändlig resurs. Jag vill belysa detta genom att närmare diskutera valet av undersökningsenhet, dvs. hushåll och valet av forskningsperspektiv aktörer i mikro- eller makrosammanhang.

The proposed transition to a low-carbon society faces challenges, as it is occurring too slowly to achieve the goals set by international and national governmental bodies, and gaps are found between available energy-efficiency technologies and their appropriate use. The governance of domestic energy systems has attracted European research attention, and the findings illustrate how materials, competence, and meaning influence energy productivity in domestic settings and how accountability is enacted by connecting people and technologies. The present research cites Swedish examples of how energy efficiency has been improved by involving multiple local actors, such as consumers, energy utilities, property companies, and local governments. Examples are analysed through the lens of social change and mundane governance theory, illustrating how spaces and places often overlooked as too mundane to be considered in policy prove, when analysed in more detail, to be important for energy efficiency. The results indicate that “governance pairs” (e.g., “households/lighting” and “caretakers/heating systems”) are more or less successfully held together and influence accountability and governance possibilities. The present analyses demonstrate that, while governance is often portrayed in terms of causality, everyday practices involving governance pairs are messier and less predictable than anticipated. These results call for the upgrading of research into everyday life and for bottom–up approaches to energy studies. Accountability – crucial to closing the energy-efficiency gap and understood in the context of mundane governance – can advance our energy-efficiency thinking and action.

I projektet har viktiga barriärer och drivkrafter för implementering av tekniskt möjliga och samhällsekonomiskt intressanta energisparåtgärder identifierats. De viktigaste resultaten visar att det finns strukturer internt inom fastighetsbolagen och mellan olika aktörer i branschen som motverkar ett mer innovativt klimat.

För att arbeta med innovativa energisparåtgärder behövs minst fyra olika kompo-nenter: kompetens, energisparmål, strategier/handlingsplaner för att nå målen och implementering/ansvar för förverkligande. I de företag som undersöktes fanns viss kompetens, men inte tillräcklig. Samtliga företag hade energisparmål, men hand-lingsplaner saknades. Ansvar delegerades, men eftersom planen för att nå målen var obefintlig eller hade brister haltade implementeringen. Energisparande hade identifierats som viktigt men ett helhetsgrepp kring frågan saknades. En central grupp som upplevdes som bromskloss för implementeringen var ekonomerna i organisationen. En slutsats är att ekonomerna som arbetar med fastigheter behöver utbildning i möjligheter att arbeta långsiktigt med energisparåtgärder och alterna-tiva ekonomiska kalkyler för att nå målen. En annan grupp som är viktig för att mata in innovationer i fastighetsbolagen när egen kompetens saknas är konsultbo-lagen. Tyvärr upplever inte de tillfrågade fastighetsbolagen att konsulterna tillför kunskap och information om nya innovationer utan att de tenderar att hålla sig till standardiserade lösningar.

För de vetenskapliga ändamålen har en flernivåmodell använts och delvis revide-rats för att passa förhållanden inom svensk fastighetssektor. I den ursprungliga modellen läggs fokus på tre nivåer: en övergripande ”landskapsnivå”, en företags- och organisationsnivå kallad ”socio-teknisk regimnivå” och en tekniknivå kallad ”tekniska nischer”. De olika nivåerna hänger samman genom att landskapsnivån är svår för enskilda organisationer att påverka medan regimnivån inbegriper orga-nisationer och teknik som ägs och kontrolleras av organisationen. Teknik och or-ganisation är sammanvävt och utgör förutsättningarna för att innovationer ska kunna få fäste. Det är regimnivån i modellen som den här rapporten huvudsakli-gen koncentreras till. Slutsatserna i den här rapporten är att det även finns klara grupperingar inom regimerna, i subregimer, som påverkar utvecklingen. Inom subregimerna finns underregimer som även de påverkar företagens inriktning.

En innovativ samarbetsmodell mellan universitetet och fastighetsbolag har också prövats i projektet. För de fyra fastighetsbolag som medverkat i projektet har en ”industriforskare” från respektive företag rekryterats för att medverka aktivt i forskningsprojektet. Fastighetsbolagen identifierade själva industriforskarna utef-ter kriteriet att de skulle vara intresserade av forskning. Gruppen LiU-forskare och industriforskare träffades gemensamt en gång i månaden för att rapportera hur projektet fortskred samt planera för framtida aktiviteter. Mellan träffarna arbetade LiU-forskarna och industriforskarna med uppgifter som antingen var individuella eller gemensamma i olika konstellationer. Modellen med industriforskare syftade dels till att göra en brygga mellan universitetet och företagen för att motverka kul-turkrockar och andra hinder för kunskapsöverföring åt båda håll, dels att stärka forskargruppen genom fler medlemmar som kan medverka i det vardagliga forsk-ningsarbetet (forskningsdesign, metodval, datainsamling, analys av data och rap-portskrivande). Samarbetsmodellen behöver utvecklas för att ytterligare stärka banden mellan universitet och företag.

Installing new energy systems in housing is claimed to be a way to meet national and international goals for reducedgreenhouse gas emissions. A socio-technical approach, based on social learning theory, is used to examine the energysystems of a large Swedish housing project ten years after its renovation. A significant retrofitting measure was theintroduction of metering. Important lessons are identified regarding the relationships between tenants, professionalsand technical systems. The inappropriate assumptions underpinning the renovation about inhabitants’ capabilitiesand demographics meant that the dwellings were not optimally refurbished to meet user requirements, particularlywith regard to the choice of technologies and inhabitants’ interface with them. Many of the installations are hiddenfrom tenants and difficult for inhabitants to discover, explore and use. Occupants did not use the technologies (smartmeters, thermostats, etc.) as intended, which lowered performance and also increased occupants’ dissatisfaction. Thiswas also evident in the high levels of support needed by the inhabitants. Social learning processes are vital for thesuccess of demand reduction strategies. Any demand reduction approach must consider people by investing in thesocial processes and the required learning for interfacing with technology, not merely the ‘smart’ technology itself.

Installing new energy systems in housing is claimed to be a way to meet national and international goals for reduced greenhouse gas emissions. A socio-technical approach, based on social learning theory, is used to examine the energy systems of a large Swedish housing project ten years after its renovation. A significant retrofitting measure was the introduction of metering. Important lessons are identified regarding the relationships between tenants, professionals and technical systems. The inappropriate assumptions underpinning the renovation about inhabitants capabilities and demographics meant that the dwellings were not optimally refurbished to meet user requirements, particularly with regard to the choice of technologies and inhabitants interface with them. Many of the installations are hidden from tenants and difficult for inhabitants to discover, explore and use. Occupants did not use the technologies (smart meters, thermostats, etc.) as intended, which lowered performance and also increased occupants dissatisfaction. This was also evident in the high levels of support needed by the inhabitants. Social learning processes are vital for the success of demand reduction strategies. Any demand reduction approach must consider people by investing in the social processes and the required learning for interfacing with technology, not merely the smart technology itself.

I detta antologibidrag analyseras introducerandet av individuell mätning och debitering av olika energitjänster i hyreslägenheter. Sådana tjänster är t.ex. varmvatten och värme inomhus, vilka tidigare varit en osynlig post på hyresavin. Syftet med denna introduktion i två bostadsområden i Sverige har varit att minska energianvändningen i hushållen. En förutsättning för att kunna administrera detta är informationsteknik och de politiska förväntningarna på denna teknik har varit stora. IT ses som ett viktigt verktyg för att nå allmänpolitiska mål såsom hållbar utveckling och miljömål såsom minskad klimatpåverkan. Samtidigt är IT en del av en "kontrollevolution" som pågått sedan 1800-talet i syfte att upprätthålla statens kontroll över samhället och t.ex. medborgarnas resursanvändning. Individuell mätning kan ses som en form av mjuk reglering där syftet är att de reglerade ska känna att de får makt över sin egen situation.

Laundering activities enact a range of socio-material relations and spatialisation of infrastructures such as provision of machines, water, energy, laundry and lately digitalisation. Drawing on a case study on communal laundry facilities in Sweden, this paper focuses on socio-material relations and explores laundry practices in Swedish rental housing, aiming for a theoretical contribution in the field of care, which could incorporate spatial and temporal aspects to be more inclusive. Theoretically based in topologies of power, with sensitivity to processes of spatialisation and temporalities, the analyses show how decisions about design, space and technologies influence everyday life of tenants. The paper illuminates how availability and access to laundry facilities were conformed and individualised to reach expected standards. Laundry spaces were subject to digitalisation and automation technologies introduced to meet efficiency and environmental demands and handle perceived problematic tenant practices. Conclusions are that relational materialism in the field of care and scripting processes would benefit from explicitly including theoretical thinking about space and temporality, conceptualised as choreography. The approach “thinking with care” brought backgrounded laundering phenomena to the fore and pointed out laundering as a matter we should care about. Digitalisation and automation facilitated control of shared laundry spaces and ambitions to individualise laundry made private spaces, such as bathrooms, more attractive to host laundering activities but backgrounded social dimensions of communal laundering.

Några skäl till att fastighetsbolag inte sparar mer energi än vad de gör är lokala fjärrvärmemonopol, bristen på tid och för slimmade organisationer. Kunderna upplevs också som förvånansvärt passiva. Allt detta enligt uppgifter från fastighetsbolagen själva.

Samhällsplaneringens teori och praktik beskriver områden med hög relevans för modern samhällsplanering. Läsaren introduceras till planeringens utmaningar och vilka verktyg planerare har att möta dem med. Boken är pedagogiskt utformad, rikt illustrerad och har exempel från olika delar av landet samt internationella utblickar. Den riktar sig i huvudsak till utbildningar i samhällsplanering. Eftersom frågorna är av stort allmänintresse kan boken också vara av värde för såväl praktiskt verkande planerare och offentliga aktörer som för en bred allmänhet med intresse för närmiljöns utformning.

The proposed transition to a low-carbon society still faces major challenges. The speed of this transition is too slow to achieve the goals set by international and national governmental bodies, and gaps are often identified between available energy-productivity technologies and their appropriate use. The governance of mundane domains such as domestic energy systems has recently attracted attention from researchers in the European context (Shove et al. 2012, Woolgar and Neyland 2013). Lessons learnt from this research illustrate how materials, competence, and meaning influence energy productivity in domestic settings (Shove et al. 2012) and how accountability is enacted by connecting people and technologies (Woolgar and Neyland 2013). The research presented here cites Swedish examples of how energy productivity has been improved by involving multiple local actors, such as consumers, energy utilities, property companies, and local governments. The examples are analysed through the lens of social change and mundane governance theories, illustrating how spaces and places often overlooked as too mundane to be considered in policy prove, when analysed in more detail, to be important for energy productivity. The results indicate that “governance pairs” (Woolgar and Neyland 2013) are more or less successfully held together and influence accountability and governance possibilities. Examples of governance pairs are “households/lighting” and “caretakers/heating system”. These analyses demonstrate that, while governance is often portrayed in terms of causality, everyday practices involving various governance pairs are messier and less predictable than anticipated. These results call for the upgrading of research into everyday life and for bottom–up approaches in energy studies. Accountability – an important part of closing the energy-efficiency gap and understood in the context of mundane governance – can advance our energy-productivity thinking and action. 

The

Clients Driving Construction Innovation book series canvasses the role of clients in facilitating innovation in the

construction industry. This three part series draws upon cutting-edge research on clients, designers, constructors and

facility managers to showcase technologies and practices developed by leading practitioners and researchers globally to

improve industry practice. The books demonstrate that through applied research, innovation continues to be prominent in

construction, particularly in areas of procurement, sustainability, occupational health and safety, and information and

communication technologies.

Today, there is an imperative to apply holistic approaches in research, but weaving parts into a whole is a challenge that few can handle. This paper builds on Hägerstrand’s perspective, what he termed socio–technical ecology, using it as an analytical framework to describe and understand habitat-related issues. Socio–technical ecology offers a foundation for research that draws attention to the material and temporal significance of the built environment for people, nature, and technology. Previous research into the built environment has called for a unified perspective, and I argue here that socio–technical ecology offers such a viable unified approach to sustainability studies of the built environment. My starting point is that research into socio–technical ecology connects people, technology, and nature, making use of theories and concepts that can be obtained from other sources. Our houses are subject to both private considerations and national policy and embody both simple and complex issues. Our identities are formed spiritually and materially in our homes, which are spaces for both solitude and social interaction. Though homes offer protection against natural elements, people often prefer to maintain some contact with nature through a surrounding garden or houseplants, and like to open windows to air out interior stuffiness and let in fresh air. Our homes bring together and interweave the human, natural, and artificial spheres, usually on people’s own terms. This does not, however, imply conflict-free relationships between people, things, and nature.

Today, there is an imperative to apply holistic approaches in research, but weaving parts into a whole is a challenge that few can handle. This paper builds on Hägerstrand’s perspective, what he termed socio–technical ecology, using it as an analytical framework to describe and understand habitat-related issues. Socio–technical ecology offers a foundation for research that draws attention to the material and temporal significance of housing for people, nature, and technology. Previous research into the housing has called for a unified perspective, and I argue here that socio–technical ecology offers such a viable unified approach to sustainability studies of housing. My starting point is that research into socio–technical ecology connects people, technology, and nature, making use of theories and concepts that can be obtained from other sources. Our houses are subject to both private considerations and national policy and embody both simple and complex issues. Our identities are formed spiritually and materially in our homes, which are spaces for both solitude and social interaction. Though homes offer protection against natural elements, people often prefer to maintain some contact with nature through a surrounding garden or houseplants, and like to open windows to air out interior stuffiness and let in fresh air. Our homes bring together and interweave the human, natural, and artificial spheres, usually on people’s own terms. This does not, however, imply conflict-free relationships between people, things, and nature.

Recycling of household waste has been proposed on different geographical levels as the key to sustainable resource management. This paper explores the sociospatial relationships of a waste management system at local level in Sweden. In this system, all waste was considered recyclable and tenants were expected to adopt certain recycling practices, although some prerequisites, such as language skills, were lacking. Theoretical approaches from geographies of power and surveillance studies are combined to analyse how spaces for waste at recycling stations were transformed and imbued with political claims of sustainability. The analyses are based on a detailed case study conducted in a neighbourhood of blocks of flats, with a focus on the design and use of recycling stations. In both their design and use, authority strategies were adopted to legitimise actions and influence recycling practices. Control measures were eventually taken and technologies were installed to restrict improper practices. Practices of discrimination were identified together with how recycling excluded some people from participating in the scheme. By using another power strategy, i.e. seduction, it was possible to reach and include more tenants.

Activity-centred design has been proposed as a way to encourage energy-efficient practices. This approach suggests that “good” designs can improve communication between the sender and receiver of a message, for example, “save energy”. The approach also concerns recent advances in research into how objects can be inscribed to steer users in certain directions. The approach has been expanded to include not only the use of individual things but the practices of everyday life. This paper examines design issues related to everyday practices and reports on findings in three household domains crucial to efforts to influence household behaviour to promote energy-efficient everyday lives: a bright and comfortable home (lighting, heating, and cooling), food and entertainment (storing food, cooking, Internet, and TV), and personal appearance (clothes washing and self-care). The findings are based on qualitative data from Swedish research in which three household domains were explored by visiting 32 homes and conducting 32 in-depth interviews. To complement the user perspective, observations and informal interviews with staff members of a public housing company were also included. Results indicate that conscious designs were seldom used to influence user practices; instead, general written information and regulations were more common tools for addressing users. Written information is not an efficient tool, and regulations are not perceived positively by households, which try to by-pass them. Current designs, instead of communicating energy efficiency, convey random messages unaligned with energy-efficiency objectives. This confuses users and makes it difficult for household members to take the “right” actions in everyday life. Recommendations to housing companies are to focus on both product and organizational designs to better target energy efficiency goals. 

The socio–technical ecology of everyday life and energy systems

Understanding everyday life is a precondition for introducing and successfully implementing any schemes for major social changes, such as substantial reductions in household energy use. Everyday life involves many different subjects, objects, practices, and activities that are sometimes interconnected and sometimes disconnected from each other. This research focuses on subjects in units, subjects such as households and landlords, and objects constituting interfaces between these units, such as the energy systems for heating, hot water, and electricity.

This paper presents results of research into the everyday life of ordinary renters. Everyday life is fascinating when examined in detail, and ordinary renters are in many ways extraordinary. The empirical research examines the everyday activities and practices performed by households and by landlord representatives. Thirty-two household members guided the researcher through their homes and were then interviewed about their domestic activities, including the use of energy. Six professional landlord representatives were interviewed at their workplaces, and discussed their jobs in relation to the energy system and renters. While households have routinized many of their domestic activities, their landlords must deal with anomalies and disruptions caused by energy system failures. To become more efficient, landlords also try to routinize their activities and practices in connection with technology failures. The material structure of the household living environment can guide people towards more energy efficient practices. For example, access to a communal laundry room can induce household members to wash full loads of laundry. When professional landlord representatives include renters in some of their work tasks, their jobs become more efficient and renters acquire some basic energy system knowledge.

The results are analysed using the theoretical framework of socio–technical ecology: “socio-technical” emphasizes the interconnections and reciprocal influence between humans and technology, while “ecology” emphasizes the systemic nature of everyday life and its connections with the environment. Movements in time and space are central to socio–technical ecology, so activities and practices are explored as processes. These processes might be hindered by various constraints, such as physical and mental abilities, access to tools and technology at the right time and place, and lack of control due to rules and regulations. Doing laundry is an everyday activity strongly influenced by how renters and landlord representatives set up physical entities and technology, and how doing laundry is not only routinized but also automatized and largely controlled.