Gendered Sustainability: Norm-critical explorations of energy practices for everyday transitions
We face several challenges in the transition to a sustainable society. We also know that it takes more than technical changes to reach social and ecological goals. How can housing and everyday life function as an arena in this transition, and what role can housing communities play in pursuing a common transition? This project combines climate, energy and equality issues, to explore how interpretations of sustainability relate to aspects like gender, age and class, and what a sustainable everyday life could look like beyond current norms and power structures.
The project takes an eco-feminist understanding of climate, energy and equality issues as interlinked, going beyond binary gender norms in relation to energy use to critically explore alternative narratives of sustainable everyday life. It employs an integrated ethnographic and norm-critical design approach to explore power structures embedded in present relations between practices, products and environments. Housing communities are explored as potential contexts for challenging energy-related structures, practices and everyday decision-making within and between households. In addition to in-depth empirical studies, design prototypes are used to both visualize current norms and to imagine, materialize and suggest artefacts and new narratives that could encourage more sustainable practices. The project benefits from a reference group with private and civil society actors, providing an opportunity to integrate project outcomes in practice.
Read more and access practical results here: designforenergi.se/portfolio/konad-hallbarhet/
Participating: Chalmers University of Technology, IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute , Uppsala University and MÄN a Swedish member based non-profit organisation
Funding: the Swedish energy agency
Project period: 2019-2022
Take part of the results from the project
On 1 December 2021, the research project held a concluding webinar where they presented a selection of concrete tools developed to support those who want to pursue an inclusive change based on their everyday life and living environment.