Towards more eclectic understandings of energy demand and change: A tale of sense-making in the messiness of transformative planning

Progressive planning interventions can be characterized as actively seeking to reconfigure bundles of practices. This represents a different strategy for creating momentum for change (in energy demand) compared to prevailing interventions with emphasis on regulation and information. In this article, we explore theoretical understandings of practices and translations as a means to illustrate how certain engagements with strategic work aimed at reconfiguring bundles of practices enable a different approach to establishing momentum for change through planning interventions.

We illustrate how the strategic work carried out in a particular case of energy renovation seems to have involved: 1) acknowledgment of the need for reconfiguring bundles of practices, 2) actively enrolling different actors in the reconfiguring of bundles of practices, and 3) basing new practice arrangements on the identification of hidden potentials in prevailing practice architectures.

Presented through storytelling, we discuss why an eclectic theoretical interpretation of new forms of planning interventions is important in order to understand and bridge the gap between theoretical insight and planners’ or practitioners’ performance.