Challenging social norms to recraft practices: A Living Lab approach to reducing household energy use in eight European countries

Marlyne Sahakian*, Henrike Rau, Eoin Grealis, Laurence Godin, Grégoire Wallenborn, Julia Backhaus, Freja Friis, Audley T. Genus, Gary Goggins, Eimear Heaslip, Eva Heiskanen, Marfuga Iskandarova, Charlotte Louise Jensen, Senja Laakso, Annika Katrin Musch, Christian Scholl, Edina Vadovics, Kristof Vadovics, Véronique Vasseur, Frances Fahy

*Kontaktforfatter

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelForskningpeer review

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Abstract

ENERGISE is the first large-scale European effort to reduce household energy use through a change initiative that adopted a ‘living lab’ approach informed by social practice theory. Two challenges were introduced to 306 households in eight countries: to lower indoor temperatures and to reduce laundry cycles. This contribution demonstrates the usefulness of a practice-centered design that takes habits and routines as an entry point for understanding how different ‘elements of practices’ can be re-crafted. We discuss how a participatory ‘living lab’ approach that explicitly encouraged deliberation and reflexivity served to sharpen attention on practices as central to change. We discuss how ‘doing laundry’ and ‘keeping warm’, as very different types of practices, responded to the change initiative. For laundry, tangible changes in material arrangements, news skills and sensory competencies, and shifts in what is seen as ‘normal’ proved to be central to reducing wash cycles, including wearing clothes more often, airing them out, using smell to gauge cleanliness, or keeping dirty clothes out of sight. Warming people rather than spaces through added layers and activities, and related shifts in norms around thermal comfort, emerged as crucial steps towards lowering indoor temperatures. Average changes in reported temperatures and wash cycles indicate that reductions are possible, without an emphasis on individuals or technologies as central to change. We end with a discussion on the implications of our approach for energy sufficiency thinking and practice, emphasizing the merits of taking the complexity of everyday life seriously when designing change initiatives.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
Artikelnummer101881
TidsskriftEnergy Research and Social Science
Vol/bind72
Udgave nummerFebruary
ISSN2214-6296
DOI
StatusUdgivet - feb. 2021

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
We would like to thank all the households who participated in the ENERGISE Living Labs, as well as our research teams and implementation partners. We are grateful to the reviewers who provided excellent feedback to an earlier draft. We also thank Laura Baird for the graphic design elements. The research presented here received funding from the European Union's H2020 Research and Innovation programme under grant agreement no. 727642. The sole responsibility for the content of this paper lies with the authors.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author(s)

Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

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