Climate change and energy use : The role for anthropological research

The expression 'global climate change' no longer designates merely a discourse on possible future risks; today it us used as a shorthand for specific ongoing events that are having a serious impact on the lives of people around the world. In the light of this change and consequent efforts to limit carbon dioxide emissions, contributions from social scientists are increasingly in demand within the study of energy use. My concern here is not whether intervention is a proper role for anthropologists, but rather how we may position ourselves within energy- and climate-related research.

Måste vi byta livsstil?

Ett tungt ansvar för klimatförändringarna läggs ofta på de boende. Människor borde "byta livsstil", sägs det. Men förändring sker sällan så abrupt, menar Annette Henning. Istället borde yrkesgrupper som sysslar med bostäder, värmesystem eller inomhusklimat medvetet stödja de vanor som kan leda oss i en energisnål riktning.

Kvinnors möjlighet att välja värmesystem begränsas

Många nya småhus byggs idag utan pannrum. Det begränsar framförallt kvinnors trygghet och handlingsutrymme. Dessutom hindras hushållen från att minska sin förbrukning av energiresurser. Men vems är felet?

Användarnas utvärdering

Det vanliga är att värmesystems tekniska förmåga utvärderas i en verkstad eller ett laboratorium. I ett just avslutat forskningsprojekt har några forskare på Centrum för solenergiforskning (SERC), på uppdrag av Energimyndigheten, istället låtit ett antal användare berätta sin egen historia om hur det gick till när de bestämde sig för ett nytt värmesystem och hur de upplevde tiden runt och närmast efter installationen. Se www.serc.se/publikationer/skriftserien Flexibla värmesystem.

Variera mera : Gästkrönika

Ett sätt för fjärrvärmebranschen att skapa framförhållning och samtidigt tillmötesgå småhusägarnas önskemål om flexibilitet är att erbjuda dem olika möjligheter att docka fjärrvärmen mot mindre uppvärmningssystem. Detta borde dessutom kunna ge betydande klimat- och energiresursvinster. Framförhållning och stärkt konkurrenskraft gentemot värmepumpsbranschen innebär också att många av de småhus som fortfarande värms med olja skulle välja att övergå till biobränslebaserad fjärrvärme istället för elvärme, som nu ofta är fallet.

Solvärme och svenska vanor

Hur bör värmesystem utformas för att passa svenska vanor? Människors inställning till solfångare och pelletskaminer speglar faktiskt hur vi förhåller oss till temperatur. Aktuell socialantropologisk forskning kan här bidra med fruktbara perspektiv.

Equal Couples in Equal Houses : Cultural perspectives on Swedish solar and bio-pellet heating design

Knowing how to design a heating system that will work mechanically is quite different from knowling how to design a system that users perceive as responsive to their domestic practices and values. In this chapter, social anthropologist Henning argues that the challenge for designers involved in the development or marketing of green buildings with heating systems that are based on renewable sources of energy is to see things from the perspective of those who are supposed to live in these buildings. The chapter focuses on three culture-specific aspects of Swedish households and single-family houses: perceptions of house and home, of private and public space, and of male and female space. Through these three angles, some clues are given as to how design, performance and location of solar and bio-pellet heating systems could be made to resonate with predominant experiences, habits and ways of thinking among both men and women.

In Bio-Fuel We Trust

In bio-fuel we trust. Or do we? In this chapter, ethnographic material from Sweden is used to discuss ways sin which trust may influence the choice of bio-fuel for heating purposes. The meaning and substance of trust or distrust, as well as the very conditions for trust, are elaborated on in relation to solar and bio-pellet systems, district heating with bio-fuel, and traditional fireplaces. An important conclusion of this chapter is that the degree to which people perceive others as being like themselves or not tends to be decisive for whether these others are to be trusted, and therefore worth listening to. The context and situation in which a certain heating system is being chosen does not only involve trust in individuals, however, but in companies and the authorities, as well as in the arterfacts themselves. An example is given on how distrust of district heating companies led house owners to reject an offer of district heating despite the comfort and environmental benefit this could have provided. it is shown how this distrust might be resolved by making the rhythm of households and sitrict heating companies more in step with one another. The strong emotional attachment to and deep-felt trust in the traditional fireplace is also analysed, and a question is put forward as to whether these feelings could be transferred to modern bio-pellet stoves. Finally, our great and assured trust in bio-fuel as a main solution to global climate change is shortly commented upon and partly questioned.

"Det finns ingen sol i Sverige" : Nätverk kring solenergin

Detta är en bok om dagens värld, men framförallt är det en bok om hur antropologer studerar dagens värld - med andra ord, i rätt vid mening en bok om metod, om antaganden, tillvägagångssätt och erfarenheter i fältarbeten.

Can qualitative methods support the development of more flexible and energy saving thermal comfort?

This paper uses examples from a Swedish study to suggest some ways in which cultural variation could be included in studies of thermal comfort. It is shown how only a slight shift of focus and methodological approach could help us discover aspects of human life that add to previous knowledge within comfort research of how human beings perceive and handle warmth and cold. It is concluded that it is not enough for buildings, heating systems and thermal control devices to be energy-efficient in a mere technical sense. If these are to help to decrease, rather than to increase, energy consumption, they have to support those parts of already existing habits and modes of thought that have the potential for low energy use. This is one reason why culture-specific features and emotional cores need to be investigated and deployed into the study and development of thermal comfort.

Creating Prestige and Global Networks through Conference Rituals

An international conference is a secular ritual which serves to create, recreate and shape global-wide translocal cultural sharings. Social anthropological theories and methods are used to show that, besides being an information flow junction, the international conference is a network crossroad and a way of socialising new members into aninternational research community. It is also capable of creating prestige and honour for the individual researcher,for the arranging research team, university and city. Rituals do not merely reflect the social relations or cosmology of a society, but are events that in themselves do important things through ritual forms and symbolic statements.

Decisions with Impact on Energy Reduction Opportunities : Swedish manufacturers and buyers of new single-family houses

This article discusses some of the complexities of human decision-making. It aims, in particular, at relating the nature of decision-making to the illusory dichotomies of change and stability, individual actions and cultural sharing. Serving as an illustration to the discussion of the article is ongoing fieldwork in contexts of buying, selling and constructing pre-fabricated detached houses in the central Sweden, and the very specific question of how decisions to install one kind of heating-system rather than another come about. A common reductionism is to narrow down the understanding of decisions about heating systems and energy consumption to conscious choices made by individual householders. I have asked myself whether, on the contrary, anyone actually makes such decisions at all. Perhaps some of these decisions are merely outcomes of interaction between different individuals with their respective responsibilities and focuses of interest.