All Doors Lead to the Kitchen – Sustainability and Wellbeing Challenges in a Shared Centrepiece of Living

The kitchen figures a central place in the home where a significant share of a household’s resource consumption takes place. Sharing the kitchen between multiple households has potential to bring positive sustainability effects due to more efficient use of both material resources and energy. The concept of shared kitchens has, however, thus far had a limited diffusion. This paper explores the potential of shared kitchens as a future sustainable living environment by studying user experiences from a Living Lab setting. It builds the base for an overarching larger European collaboration on how future shared kitchens should be designed in order to support everyday practices while optimising the conditions for achieving positive impact on both sustainability and wellbeing. Findings are presented from five focus areas concerning different use contexts: (1) accessing, (2) cooking, (3) living and socialising, (4) storing, and (5) cleaning

One transition, many transitions? A corpus-based study of societal sustainability transition discourses in four civil society’s proposals

When the civil society makes ‘transition’ its label, it cannot be assumed that different civil society actors share compatible varieties of localist or radical transformationists discourses. This study has comparatively analyzed the discourses in four civil society sustainability transition proposals using a corpus-based methodology. We found that the proposals are similar as they identify the economy as an object and an entry point for transition, frame the economy as embedded in the socio–ecological system, ascribe agency to grassroots movements for transitions from the bottom–up. We also found crucial differences among the discourses regarding the role of the State, the degree of reform or radical innovation, the degree of imaginative character of the sustainability vision, the degree of opposition to capitalism. We suggest that insights on how the civil society employs notions of transition with respect to the themes of politics, emotions and place can help advance theorizations and practices of societal sustainability transitions led by the civil society

The desirability of transitions in demand: Incorporating behavioural and societal transformations into energy modelling

Quantitative systems modelling in support of climate policy has tended to focus more on the supply side in assessing interactions among technology, economy, environment, policy and society. By contrast, the demand side is usually underrepresented, often emphasising technological options for energy efficiency improvements. In this perspective, we argue that scientific support to climate action is not only about exploring capacity of "what", in terms of policy and outcome, but also about assessing feasibility and desirability, in terms of "when", "where" and especially for "whom". Without the necessary behavioural and societal transformations, the world faces an inadequate response to the climate crisis challenge. This could result from poor uptake of low-carbon technologies, continued high-carbon intensive lifestyles, or economy-wide rebound effects. For this reason, we propose a framing for a holistic and transdisciplinary perspective on the role of human choices and behaviours in influencing the low-carbon transition, starting from the desires of individuals and communities, and analysing how these interact with the energy and economic landscape, leading to systemic change at the macro-level. In making a case for a political ecology agenda, we expand our scope, from comprehending the role of societal acceptance and uptake of end-use technologies, to co-developing knowledge with citizens from non-mainstream and marginalised communities, and to defining the modelling requirements to assess the decarbonisation potential of shifting lifestyle patterns in climate change and action

Interpreting the Sustainable Home - Bridging Discourses on Home and Sustainability in the Housing Sector

How we design, build and maintain our homes are increasingly seen as instrumental to the environmental, social and financial impact of the built environment. By examining perspectives on and interpretations of sustainability in housing development, with a focus on discourses within the Swedish housing sector, the aim of this Licentiate thesis is to explore and provide an account of contemporary conceptualizations of the sustainable home. Along with theoretical developments, empirical insights from interviews and focus groups conducted with actors in the housing market (developers and architects), as well as within academia (researchers and students) are presented. A series of pilot studies explore the two areas of study, relating to discourses regarding two particular cases that are portrayed as the ‘frontline’ of sustainability in housing.The empirical material indicates that outspoken aims of radically challenging the normative and resource intense ideals of the modern home generally appear to be lacking in new market-led housing development, with a rather unilateral interpretation of sustainability in eco-efficient or generally vague terms. It is suggested that a holistic perspective is required in the alignment between how different actors perceive housing development, and what is sustainable, where the academic case presented gives points for further discussion. In conclusion, a need to visualize ideals and various conflicting images of home in the housing sector is emphasized. This provides a point of departure for positioning sustainability in housing, introducing less resource intense ways of residing that also consider issues related to equality and diversity in the built environment

Conceptualizing the sustainable home - Explorations of alternative home practices

How we design, build and manage our living environments is instrumental in the environmental, socio-cultural as well as politico-economical implications of the built environment. A main indicator of resource use in particular is moreover found in individual residents’ ways of life, as well as aspects of material, spatial and thermal standards that influence the energy and resource intensity of contemporary home life. Of interest to the presented research is how residents’ perceptions of home, housing development and living standards relate to environmental attitudes and interpretations of sustainability. It explores perceptions of and the potential for less resource intensive home-related practices, primarily linked to voluntary simplicity, living smaller, as well as sharing spaces and resources in or in relation to the dwelling.A mixed methods approach is used to study residents’ perspectives, with empirical material from two different studies in two varying contexts: an urban tenant-owned housing association in Gothenburg; and semi-rural households in the Municipality of Alings\ue5s. In the first study, questionnaires were distributed to all households within a selected housing association, with a response rate of 51% (n=156). By recruitment through the questionnaires, follow-up interviews were conducted with 22 of the households. A second study revolves around narratives from people that have intentionally chosen to live in various alternative ways, where seven deep interviews, following a more ethnographic approach, offer valuable empirical insights.The studies provide a basis for exploring alternative home-related practices. The efficacy of current ‘green’ housing development is discussed, as well as the willingness among residents to reduce resource use in relation to more or less normative representations of home. The need for understanding residents’ dispositions and the implications this might have for targeting the resource intensity of homes in more or less radical ways is emphasized, in order to develop future approaches and policy

“It’s Just a Matter of Adjustment”: Residents’ Perceptions and the Potential for Low-impact Home Practices

In addition to material, spatial and thermal standards and norms that influence the resource intensity of home environments, a key indicator of the environmental impact related to housing is found in residents’ ways of life. Of interest to the study presented in this paper is how residents’ perceptions of home and living standards relate to opinions on environmental issues and the reduction of resource use, exploring the potential and willingness to engage in low-impact ways of living. Empirical material from a questionnaire (n = 156) and interview study (n = 22) with residents in a tenant-owned housing association in Sweden provides insights into conventions and perceptions surrounding practices primarily linked to voluntary simplicity, living smaller as well as sharing spaces and resources. The study emphasizes the need for understanding residents’ perspectives and the implications this might have for targeting the resource intensity of homes in future development and policy

Exploring the Potential for Just Urban Transformations in Light of Eco-Modernist Imaginaries of Sustainability

This article approaches urban ethics through critically examining the production and reproduction of an eco-modern socio-technical imaginary of sustainable urban development in Sweden, and the conditions and obstacles this poses for a just transformation. We see that notions of ecological modernization re-present problems of urban sustainability in ways that do not challenge the predominant regime, but rather uphold unjust power relations. More particularly, through an approach inspired by critical discourse analysis, we uncover what these problem representations entail, deconstructing what we find as three cornerstones of an eco-modern imaginary that obstruct the emergence of a more ethically-engaged understanding of urban sustainability. The first concerns which scales and system boundaries are constructed as relevant, and how this results in some modes and places of production and consumption being constructed as more efficient—and sustainable—than others. The second cornerstone has to do with what resources and ways of using them (including mediating technologies) are foregrounded and constructed as more important in relation to sustainability than others. The third cornerstone concerns the construction of subjectivities, through which some types of people and practices are put forth as more efficient -and sustainable- than others. Utilizing a critical speculative design approach, we explore a selection of alternative problem representations, and finally discuss these in relation to the possibility of affording a more ethical urban design and planning practice