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This document discusses a qualitative longitudinal study that used various visual and narrative methods to explore how people think about and plan for the future in relation to energy use. It describes using timelines, photos, and video clips to prompt discussions about participants' visions of the future and how their views may change over time. Challenges included asking direct questions about the future, which some found difficult, and balancing in-depth multimodal activities with time constraints and ethical considerations in qualitative longitudinal research.

Sensing the Air and Experimenting with Environmental Citizenship

This document discusses citizen sensing and monitoring of environments. It presents several projects that allow citizens to monitor air quality including the London Air mobile app, environmental monitoring Arduino kits, and air quality monitoring devices attached to street sweepers, robotic dogs, pigeons, and eggs. The goal is to experiment with environmental citizenship and materialize data through do-it-yourself sensing devices. The research is funded by a European Research Council grant for a project called "Citizen Sensing and Environmental Practice".

Learning from discomfort - Science communication experiments between diffusio...

This document summarizes Maja Horst's research on using interactive installations to facilitate science communication and public engagement. It discusses experiments using installations to promote dialogue over diffusion and engage audiences physically and emotionally. It also examines challenges like balancing researcher and communicator roles, interpreting audience contributions, and accounting for unexpected responses. The goal is to develop more dialogical, participatory forms of science communication.

Care and STS: re‐embedding socio‐technical futures

Chris Groves

STS has, in recent years, seen the foregrounding of concepts of care in attempting to understand the constitution of of socio-technologies, as in, for example, the work of scholars like Annemarie Mol and Maria Puig de la Bellacasa. Despite the explicit attention such research pays to temporality, connections between care and technoscientific futures remain under-explored. This paper addresses this issue by re-appraising the connections between care, socio-technologies and futures, drawing on phenomenology, the ethics of care, and objects-relations theories to explore the relationship between practices, technologies and complex subjectivity. Performing the future in the present, it is suggested, constitutes and is constituted by specific temporal relationships between past, present and the not-yet through which subjects exercise care for the future. These relationships can be lost, in certain circumstances, in the products of the performance itself, in the quest for socially-valorized and desired 'disembedded' knowledge of futures, as manifested in demand forecasts, cost-benefit analyses, profit projections and so on. I explore how restoring an appreciation for the 'artisanal' performance of futures is essential to how innovation, and indeed governance of innovation, can be re-embedded in society as part of the broader goal of reconstructing the contract between technoscience and the societies that depend on it. Normative dimensions in STS, as addressed by recent developments such as responsible innovation ('taking care of the future' through the stewardship of technoscience, according to Stilgoe, Owen & Macnaghten, 2013), are thus brought back into the analytical frame.

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This document describes a research project that examines how individual and shared meanings around energy and sustainability change over time. The project conducts longitudinal interviews with residents of eco-communities in Wales, including Lammas and Tir-y-Gafel, to understand how their practices and perspectives may transform. It finds tensions between shared goals of sustainability and more personal connections to place. Specifically, striving for self-sufficiency creates dilemmas and potential "waste" when economic dependencies remain. The project aims to capture these "quiet struggles" as local meanings interact with and potentially reshape wider sustainability meanings.

Transformation and the Psychosocial

This document discusses how psychosocial factors like attachment patterns and life transitions can influence individual participation in social practices. It presents findings from interviews with participants in the Energy Biographies project. One interview subject, Lucy, discussed how hosting friends and family from London involved practices like using a wood burner and patio heater. While aware these practices are environmentally unfriendly, she finds internal rewards in how they facilitate outdoor socializing and confirm her identity, showing how attachment and identity needs can compel ongoing engagement in problematic practices. The document examines how narrative interviews can reveal these "evasive" psychosocial dimensions underlying energy-related practices.

Energy Practices and Psychosocial Research: The Energy Biographies Study

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This document provides an overview and update of the Energy Biographies research project. The project uses narrative interviews and longitudinal methods to study people's "energy biographies" and energy use across different communities. It is being conducted in phases by researchers from Cardiff University. The overview summarizes the research questions, case study sites, methods used to date including narrative interviews, and plans for future phases including additional interviews and multi-modal methods like photos. Emergent themes from initial interviews are also summarized.

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This document discusses interviews conducted with people in the UK about their energy use and perspectives on sustainable lifestyles. It profiles two men, Jeremy and Peter, who have lived more sustainable lifestyles. Jeremy has been an environmentalist for decades and led a community energy project. Peter "fell in love" with alternative living after discovering an ecovillage. The document concludes that perceptions of sustainable lifestyles have changed over time but are still not mainstream, and there is a challenge in overcoming stereotypes.

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This document outlines the objectives and methodology of a research project investigating community-led energy demand reduction initiatives through an analysis of people's "energy biographies". The project aims to 1) develop understanding of energy use by comparing energy biographies across different social settings, 2) examine how demand reduction interventions interact with personal biographies, and 3) improve understanding of how communities can support reduced energy consumption. The researchers are using narrative interviews, longitudinal qualitative methods, and visual methods to collect data from case sites in Wales and England. The analysis will involve coding, case biographies, qualitative longitudinal analysis, and multi-modal approaches.

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This document summarizes an academic presentation on the Energy Biographies project, which examines peoples' knowledge and competencies regarding sustainable energy practices. The project uses qualitative longitudinal methods to study four case sites in the UK. Interviews with 68 participants in the first phase explored which knowledges and competencies people demonstrate around sustainable practices. The data shows that people often feel uncertain about what constitutes truly sustainable actions and question whether their current practices are sufficient. This uncertainty arises from complex connections between the meanings, materials, and skills involved in sustainable behaviors.

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The future, viewed from the present, is not a realm of facts (Jouvenel, 1967), but of possibilities, potentials and expectations that shape the present (Borup, Brown, Konrad, & Van Lente, 2006). It has therefore been argued that social technology assessment requires critique of the socio-technical imaginaries through which visions of future technologies are constructed (Simakova & Coenen, 2013). Technology assessment thus moves beyond weighing risks against benefits, and towards interrogating the ‘worlds’, including social relationships, practices and forms of life, that are implicated in future imaginaries (Macnaghten & Szerszynski, 2013). The contribution that qualitative social science research can make here by exploring the meanings of technologies within everyday practices has been demonstrated by, for example, Yolande Strengers’ ethnographic work on everyday energy use and imaginaries of ‘smartness’ (Strengers, 2013). In this paper, and contrasting with Strengers’ ethnographic approach, we show how the biographical investigation of everyday life can be used to develop deliberation on socio-technical imaginaries. Using a novel combination of narrative interviews and multimodal methods, the Energy Biographies project at Cardiff University has examined imaginaries of smartness through the lens of biographical experiences of transformations in how energy is used domestically. In particular, this approach can open up a critical space around future socio-technical imaginaries by exploring the investments that individuals have in different forms of engagement with the world, along with the relationship between these forms and particular technologies. Using a psychosocial framework that also draws on theoretical resources from science and technology studies, we show how these investments can lead to shifts in the meaning of taken-for granted assumptions about the meaning of concepts like convenience, and how valued forms of subjectivity may be conceptualised as emerging out of the ‘friction’ of engagement with the world. In this way, we demonstrate the value for of ‘thick’ data relating to the affective dimensions of subjective experience for social technology assessment.

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Whole energy system transition implies both complex processes of socio-technical change and complex sets of public values. Making sense of what may happen (the future ‘possibility space’) and what is at stake (the ‘issue space’) are social tasks to which, as science and technology studies (STS) scholars have argued, future imaginaries contribute resources. Such imaginaries provide symbolic templates (Mordini 2007) for understanding possible futures. Often such imaginaries have been associated with single technologies. STS has mapped numerous examples in relation to energy, such as nuclear and all-electric futures. The complexity of a coming renewables-based transition, however, mobilises imaginaries that include within them multiple energy vectors, the governance of the energy system, and the role of publics and other stakeholders. To explore these whole-system imaginaries, we report on interviews undertaken with academic engineering experts and others involved in demonstrator project delivery working on the ERDF-funded Flexis project in South Wales, UK (http://flexis.wales). Despite there being much shared common ground, in the shape of a whole systems imaginary of decentralisation, this brings with it a complex space of possibilities within which different socio-technical constellations can be imagined. These constellations have characteristics with very different implications for energy research and energy policy.

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This document discusses a study exploring public perceptions of a proposed energy innovation project in a marginalized Welsh community. The project involves using minewater as a geothermal source to heat homes and potentially installing smart energy management platforms. While residents were interested in reducing energy costs, there was skepticism about whether smart technology could help with this. Opinions on smart meters varied between age groups, with more enthusiasm from younger people and more skepticism from older residents. The study aims to understand community views and implications for wider technical rollouts.

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Smart Living: Implications for health and wellbeing

Smart living involves using technology to increase efficiency, security, and control over daily life through a technologically mediated environment. However, some concerns exist that increased reliance on smart technologies may negatively impact well-being. Qualitative interviews explored how technologies like electric hedge trimmers, patio heaters, and indoor aeroponic gardens impact relationships with nature and mental health. While technologies can aid comfort, their use could create social divides and replace independent thinking with computerized control. Ensuring technologies improve rather than harm well-being will be an ongoing challenge.

Making energy futures sensible: expert imaginaries and affect

It is increasingly recognised that, when it comes to energy system transitions, ‘energy policy choices reconfigure societies’ which means that ‘the social-dimensions of energy systems are particularly salient for energy policy choices in the context of large-scale energy transitions’ (Miller, Richter, and O’Leary 2015, 30). At the same time, the ways in which anticipations of energy futures influence and flow into action in the present is relatively under-investigated. The sociology of expectations (Borup et al. 2006) has explored how the circulation of promissory texts and images shapes future imaginaries, through which uncertainties about the future are tamed. Absent from such an approach, however, is the ways in which future imaginaries, as anticipatory practices, are interdependent with lived futures, composed of anticipatory emotions and affects (Groves 2016). This presentation is based on a series of expert interviews conducted with senior investigators from across the academic institutions, local authorities and private sector organisations involved in Flexis (http://flexis.wales), a multi-site and interdisciplinary project focused on investigating potential pathways for low-carbon energy system transformation. Using a cultural probes (Gaver, Dunne, and Pacenti 1999) approach to elicit and explore emotional responses to potential energy futures as part of semi-structured interviews designed to examine imaginaries of energy system transformation, it is argued that a methodological approach sensitised to the emotional aspects of lived futures (Adam and Groves 2007) can take steps towards re-embedding abstract promissory futures in everyday contexts of care and concern. This opens up opportunities to render expert discourses of possible futures more reflexive towards the often unquestioned priorities that shape them.

SOCIAL ACCEPTABILITY & RESPONSIBLE DEVELOPMENT OF ENERGY SYSTEMS

.Understanding the whole energy system of the future involves us i) working in a shared socio-technical “problem space” encompassing what is considered to be: Possible/plausible and desirable We are mapping this out (our “issues space”) Engaging with publics/ideas about imagined futures ii) Understanding diverse impacts of dynamic changes arising on daily life, the lifecourse, and emergent socio-technical/systems Smart - as an emergent (socio-technical & socio-cultural) systems dynamic - will impact in ways that matter greatly to people– raising non-trivial research issues

Why energy matters: energy biographies and everyday ethics

In recent years, debates about energy justice have become increasingly prominent. However, the question of what is at stake in claims about energy justice or injustice is a complex one. Signifying more than simply the fair distribution of quantities of energy, energy justice also implies issues of procedural justice (participation) and recognition (acknowledgement of diverse values constitutive of ways of life). It is argued that this requires an acknowledgement of the relational nature of ethical subjectivity. Data from the Energy Biographies project at Cardiff University is used to explore the connections between the relational texture of everyday life and the ethical significance of energy. In particular, the contribution of embodiment, attachment and narrative as capabilities to the everyday ethical evaluation of different ways of using energy is shown to be significant. Ethical investments in ideas of a good life are implicit in bodily comportment, emotional attachment, and biographical narratives, it is suggested. Using multimodal and biographical qualitative social science methods allows these implicit forms of evaluation to become more tangible, and the moral conflicts between some forms of energy-using practices to be exposed

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This document summarizes a presentation given by Prof Karen Henwood on insights from studying energy biographies and everyday energy use. It discusses the Energy Biographies project which used qualitative longitudinal interviews and visual methods to understand dynamics of everyday energy use. Key findings included enhancing reflections on practices and meaning through participant photos and videos. The project prompted reflections on usually intangible energy use and emotional attachments to practices and infrastructure that influence potential for change. While lifecycle transitions are seen as opportunities for intervention, thicker analysis of disruption is needed to understand how identities are negotiated through such changes.

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1) The document discusses a case study of Lammas ecovillage in Wales and its experiences meeting UK planning regulations that required developing sustainable energy and food systems. 2) Residents found the planning targets were initially unifying but felt underwhelmed once achieved. Some struggled to meet the targets, balance family life, and develop permaculture systems within the timeframe. 3) While the targets focused on measurable outcomes, residents highlighted wider personal and social impacts like inspiring visitors and contributing to community. Smart technology was seen as a way to better manage resources and appeal to more people.

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This document discusses research on how people may react to smart homes and energy systems. It examines opportunities and obstacles for smart energy management strategies in homes. While automation and real-time energy use information could help create smart consumers, these approaches may overlook social practices and personal attachments that influence energy use. Research also found that smart meters alone may not drive behavior change without close support and particular uses. People's practices and cultural meanings associated with energy use can constrain behaviors in unexpected ways for technology designers. Narrative interviews exploring people's past experiences and future visions of energy use provide insights into how technologies may interact with social factors.

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This document summarizes three research projects conducted by Professor Karen Henwood and her team exploring sustainable energy and environmental risk through social science methods and public engagement. The projects include: 1) Making Sense of Sustainability which used arts and social science to facilitate environmental discussions; 2) Energy Biographies which examined energy use through biographical stories and participant photography; and 3) Flexis which looks at potential social impacts of energy system transitions through "stories of change". The document then discusses the team's interpretivist and socio-cultural approach which investigates meaning-making through methods like interviews, text analysis, and participatory techniques involving arts to explore complex subjectivity, reflexivity, conviviality, and obliquity.

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This document summarizes a presentation about energy use research projects. It discusses: 1) The Energy Biographies project, a large qualitative study exploring how people use energy in everyday life. It generated new understanding of how energy use is patterned across individuals' lives. 2) The Flexis project, which will build on Energy Biographies to understand how proposed new flexible energy systems may impact people's lives, and help shape policy responses. 3) Current Flexis case studies exploring public responses to socio-technical changes in energy in communities in Wales. The presentation argues social science research is needed to anticipate how people may respond to new energy innovations, to

Energy Biographies Final Research report

This document summarizes the key findings of the Energy Biographies research project, which used narrative interviews and multimodal methods to study how and why household energy use changes over people's lifetimes and within different communities. The research identified several overlooked influences on energy demand, including how lifecourse transitions are often incremental and shaped by wider social changes. It also found that communities can provide foundations for shared efforts to reduce energy use, but that policy timelines may clash with bottom-up initiatives. Additionally, the study revealed how energy infrastructure and practices are intertwined with people's identities and visions of a worthwhile life, and how these attachments can both enable and conflict with sustainable energy use.

The grit in the oyster:

It has been argued that social technology assessment requires critique of the ‘worlds’ implicated in the future imaginaries through which expectations take shape around new technologies. Qualitative social science research can aid deliberation by exploring the meanings of technologies within everyday practices, as is demonstrate by Yolande Strengers’ ethnographic work on everyday energy use and imaginaries of ‘smartness’. In this paper, we show how a novel combination of narrative interviews and multimodal methods can help in explore future imaginaries of smartness through the lens of biographical experiences of socio-technical changes in how energy is used domestically. In particular, this approach can open up a critical space around future socio-technical imaginaries by exploring the investments that individuals have in different forms of engagement with the world and the relationship between these forms and particular technologies. Using a psychosocial framework that draws on theoretical resources from science and technology studies, we show how these investments can lead to shifts in the meaning of taken-for granted assumptions about the meaning of concepts like convenience, and how valued forms of subjectivity may be conceptualised as emerging out of the ‘friction’ of engagement with the world. In this way, we demonstrate the value for of ‘thick’ data relating to the affective dimensions of subjective experience for social technology assessment and responsible research and innovation.

Energy biographies: narrative genres, lifecourse transitions and practice change

The problem of how to make the transition to a more environmentally and socially sustainable society poses questions about how such far - reaching social change can be brought about. In recent years, lifecourse transitions have been identified by a range of researchers as opportunities for policy and other actors to intervene to change how individuals use energy, taking advantage of such disruptive transitions to encourage individuals to be reflexive towards their lifestyles and how they use the technological infrastructures on which they rely. Such identifications, however, employ narratives of voluntary change which take an overly optimistic change of how individuals experience lifecourse transitions, and ignore effects of experiences of unresolved or unsucc essful transitions. Drawing on narrative interview data from the Energy Biographies project based at Cardiff University, we explore three case studies where effects of such unresolved transitions are significant. Using the concept of liminal transition as developed by Victor Turner, we examine instances where ‘progressive’ master narratives of energy use reduction clash with other ‘narrative genres’ which individuals use to make sense of change, based on experiences of transition. These clashes show how nar ratives which view lifecourse transitions as opportunities ignore the challenges that such transitions may pose to individual identity and thereby to interventions which position individuals as agents responsible for driving change

Living the "Good Life"?: energy biographies, identities and competing normati...

This paper examines how the ways in which consumers use energy are shaped, not only by practice (Shove, Pantzar and Watson, 2012), but by biographically attachments to ways of life which relate to place and identity. Understanding how practices which require the consumption of energy may be transformed is vital for any transition towards socio-environmental sustainability. However, theorising and explaining the role of individual agency in practice change continues to present challenges. In this paper we address this issue by employing concepts of complex subjectivity to analyse some psychosocial dimensions of energy consumption. In particular, we focus on how a narrative interview-based and multimodal approach to understanding practice can render visible conflicts between different definitions of ‘need’ or the purpose of practices, which often develop into different (and sometimes incommensurable) forms of normative justification for engaging in different practices. Drawing on interviews conducted as part of the Energy Biographies project at Cardiff University, we show that engaging in practices is bound up with particular attachments that are seen by interviewees as constitutive of identity and of visions of ‘the good life’ or particular ways of determining what is ‘right’ in a given situation. Lifecourse transitions may produce conflicts between such normative frameworks which can create obstacles to the transformation of practices that are unaccounted for by practice theory.

Psychosocialconnections