Research profile

I research and teach sustainable consumption, with a particular focus on household energy use of heating and electricity. My research examines how energy-related habits and practices are formed, reproduced, transmitted, and transformed over time, and how they are shaped by social relations, prior experiences, structural inequality, and infrastructure.

A central focus of my research is why households display markedly different patterns of electricity and heat consumption, including differences related to income, housing conditions, and access to technology. I also study household adoption and use of smart technologies and solar photovoltaic systems, as well as the potential for flexible energy demand, where electricity consumption is shifted over time to reduce peak loads, for example in response to dynamic electricity pricing.

Theoretically, my research is grounded in sociological and social scientific theories of consumption, with a particular emphasis on practice theory (or theories of practice).

Methodologically, I employ a broad range of approaches, including qualitative interviews, survey data, and econometric analysis.

My primary contribution to research lies in providing empirical evidence of how energy-related habits and everyday practices are socially embedded and shaped through family relations, routines, and prior life experiences, and how these processes contribute to persistent differences in household energy consumption (Hansen, 2018; Hansen & Jacobsen, 2020).