Institutional context, innovations, and energy transitions: Exploring solar photovoltaics with hydrogen storage at a secondary school in Norway

Public administrative action is crucial in facilitating sustainability transitions. Although organizational structures, cultures and established practices have been shown to lead to differing innovation results and technological diffusion at various levels of governance, little attention has been paid to the role of local government and administration in sustainable energy transitions. This study analyses renewable energy innovation at the local level of public administration in Norway. Drawing on the institutional and entrepreneurial literature, we examine the key formal decisions and organizational culture development that, combined with policy entrepreneurship, ultimately led to an unlikely and risky decision: to include a costly and unusual local energy system in the construction of a new secondary school. Tracing the administrative processes over 20 years, and drawing on document data supported by 14 interviews, we find that the strong and politically shielded administrative section, backed by a firm mandate and an established internal culture of innovation anchored in historic and local identity among the population and local industry, led to this decision. These factors were further facilitated by acts of policy entrepreneurship at crucial moments, shaping the underlying structures and institutional culture. The independence and strong direction of the administrative section can be emulated in other contexts in order to facilitate innovation. With suitable adaptations to other contexts, our findings may help to accelerate energy transitions through system innovations elsewhere.Institutional context, innovations, and energy transitions: Exploring solar photovoltaics with hydrogen storage at a secondary school in NorwayacceptedVersio

Forbrukerfleksibilitet: Et kunnskapsgrunnlag for å forstå husholdningers oppfatninger og muligheter

I Norge ble en ny modell for beregning av nettleie innført 1. juli 2022. Formålet med den nye nettleien er å motivere husholdninger til å fordele strømforbruket jevnere utover døgnet. På tidspunktet hvor den nye nettleien ble planlagt innført var det liten kunnskap om virkninger av slike virkemidler på forbrukere. Flexeffect-prosjektet startet har undersøkt virkninger virkemidler for fleksibel strømbruk på forskjellige husholdningsgrupper. Resultatene viser at mange av forbrukerne forstår og er enige med formålet for ny nettleie. Samtidig gjør utformingen det vanskelig å forstå og tilpasse seg i hverdagslivet og det er konkurrerende signaler og hensyn de må ta. Videre har mange uttrykt bekymring for at den nye nettleien kan få uheldige og urettferdige fordelingsvirkninger. Våre funn viser også at det er krevende for forbrukere å ta i bruk ny teknologi for å øke forbrukerfleksibiliteten. Selv om forbrukerhensyn er nevnt i den politiske rosessen for å innføre ny nettleie er forbrukerne svakt representert i utformingen og forbrukerhensynene som inngår i konsultasjonene har en tendens til å være generelle. Dimensjoner som systembehov er blitt mer vektlagt enn orbrukerbehov og ikke minst forbrukeres evne til tilpasning

With and for Society? Experiences from CICERO Center for International Climate Research with User Involvement in Science

In order to ensure that scientific knowledge is made relevant and useful for solving pressing societal challenges such as climate change, science policy actors like the European Union have increasingly advocated for various approaches for including non-academic stakeholders in the production and governance of scientific research. Concepts like “co-production,” “Responsible Research and Innovation” and “user involvement” have rapidly risen onto science policy agendas in Norway and the EU, carrying a demand that scientific researchers step out of the “ivory tower” and work in closer collaboration with different societal actors. This thesis presents a case study of the Norwegian research institute CICERO Center for International Climate Research as it experiences these demands for user involvement in scientific research projects. In particular, I examine how these science policy shifts contribute to re-shaping the relationship and boundaries between science and society. Drawing on the science and technology studies (STS) concepts of cultural cartographies of science and boundary work, I describe how different understandings of user involvement and co-production draw up different “maps” of science-in-society. Are Norwegian science policy efforts toward open science tearing down the ivory tower to build an open and democratic agora of scientific knowledge production – or perhaps a knowledge production factory? The findings of this thesis highlight the role of science policy instruments and research funding mechanisms in shaping the dynamics of user involvement, and raise questions about the claim that current efforts for user involvement make scientific knowledge relevant and useful to society as a whole. They also suggest that obscuring tensions between the different understandings of co-production that underpin research and policy on this topic may lead to black-boxing and de-politicisation of the concepts of “responsibility,” “relevant science” and “useful knowledge.” In particular, this thesis highlights the importance of continuously asking the question: relevant and useful for whom, and to what end

The Norwegian trekking association: conditions for its continued existence with new tourism patterns.

The Norwegian Trekking Association (DNT) promotes outdoor activities all over Norway. It marks trails and operates 550 cabins, maintained by extensive voluntary efforts, throughout the country. Based on a case study of one area in Norway in which DNT operates, we discuss the prerequisites for the DNT system to be sustained and the challenges it faces with new tourism patterns. Two main conditions are paramount for the DNT system to develop. First, a large overlap between the core values of DNT and its guests is required. Second, the transfer of norms and conduct inherent in the system is conditioned by social encounters in real time and places, bodily experiences, and facilitated by face-to-face communication between fellow trekkers. Guests who are unfamiliar with the DNT system’s core values and code of conduct may threaten the system; increased attention to promoting the core values in informational material and mentors who guide newcomers may counteract these threats