=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1203/SPPSG-preface
|storemode=property
|title=None
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1203/SPPSG-preface.pdf
|volume=Vol-1203
}}
==None==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1203/SPPSG-preface.pdf
A Social Practice Perspective on Smart Grids
Summary of workshop at ICT4S 2014
Cecilia Katzeff Annelise de Jong
Interactive Institute Swedish ICT Interactive Institute Swedish ICT
Eskilstuna, Sweden Kista, Sweden
cecilia.katzeff@tii.se annelise@tii.se
Centre for Sustainable Communications CESC, KTH Royal Delft University of Technology, Industrial Design,
Institute of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
Stockholm, Sweden
Abstract—This is a summary of the workshop that was held
as part of the ICT4S conference with a focus on the topic of social II. PAPER SUMMARIES
practices and smart grids. Here we present an overview of the Two of the papers focus on actor perspectives on the smart
five invited paper contributions to the workshop, as well as a
grid. Bartusch and Perna’s paper ”Key actor perspectives on
summary of the plenary discussion, and our final conclusions.
Keywords—sustainability; ICT; social practice theory; smart
grid; design
I. INTRODUCTION
Today citizens are being ascribed increasingly (re)active
roles in sustainable development, as captured in concepts such
as ‘prosumers’. As prosumers, citizens are often still
subordinated to larger and top-down socio-technical agendas,
such as local energy production and ‘load management’ in
smart grid districts. Further, the effects of such agendas are
often unrealized, partly due to an underestimation of the power
and complexity of social practices and partly because ‘lock-ins’
and ‘rebound effects’ in consumption habits continue to
counter efficiency gains.
A social practice perspective may open up new
opportunities for understanding and potentially change Figure 1. Workshop participants at the introduction on
everyday practices in a sustainable direction. The perspective social practices and smart grids
entails that human actions are viewed as part of an ecological
system rather than isolated phenomena. They are considered as smart grids: A qualitative study on barriers and incentives for
part of a whole. This may facilitate for a reformulation of the the development of smart grids in the Swedish power market”
commonly posed question “How may we change people’s poses the research question as to how different actors perceive
behaviour?” to more fruitful formulations in terms of the smart grid. The authors present an exploratory study
relationships and dependencies between for instance everyday aiming to assess the motivations and incentives of key actors
practices and electricity companies. in order to identify potential barriers and opportunities -
The workshop had three major goals: To identify research financial, technological, political and psychological - when
directions and researchers within the field of social practices smart grids are implemented. Theories of technological
and smart grids; to build a community around the research field development and industrial networks are applied to analyze
and to plan for subsequent workshops. During the three-hour the results. A preliminary analysis concludes that the financial
workshop an introduction to the topic and goal of the workshop dimension constitutes the greatest barrier, mainly because of
was presented by us, followed by presentations of the five the electricity price level and monetary flows from financial
position papers. Then, we facilitated a general discussion, and investments.
finally future plans were decided upon. In total 11 researchers
from Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands and the UK Another focus on actors is presented in the paper ”Social
participated in the workshop (Figure 1). practice theory on tour: Venturing beyond household aspects
of smart grids”. Here, Langendahl, Cook and Potter argue that
reducing smart grid ecologies to everyday household practices Then the discussion arose how to work with Social
may limit the potential of practice theory to understand Practice Theory as a way of looking at existing situations and
development of smart grids. In their paper they, thus, explore understanding the complexity of changing those situations, but
the potential of practice theory to account for practices not to change or transform consumers in a way that is more
performed by actors associated with smart grids beyond desirable or compatible with Smart grid functionalities. Here,
households. a challenge was seen to work with this theory in a way that
does justice to its ideas. This forms a new breeding ground for
Kortuem, Bourgois, Van der Linden and Price’s paper future work, our network, and new conference discussions to
“Participatory Data Analysis: A New Method for Investigating be shaped and nourished.
Human Energy Practices” describes a method for enabling
people to reflect on their own behavior. In the method also lies IV. CONCLUSIONS
an ambition to gain insight into factors that influence people’s The workshop created a forum for knowledge
behavior. The paper shows examples of how the method could sharing, lively discussion, and plans for further research
be applied. In his paper “The role of learning and social exchange. An embryo for a European community around the
interaction for changing practices?”, Christensen attempts to research field of a social practice perspective of smart grids
combine social practice theory with Kolb’s theory of was formed. The paper presentations and discussion presented
experiential learning. The aim is to inspire to further thinking a variety of different viewpoints and methods that cast a
about how to make practice theory more “applicable” for different, albeit diffused, light on smart grids and actor
designing changes towards a low-carbon energy system. perspectives. The wish for continuous research exchange was
demonstrated by the joint request of the members of the group
Finally, “Multidisciplinary smart Grid research and the to continue the discussion forum through growing the network
design of users” by Gaye and Wallenborn, has a user- and and extending the workshop to a new session in ICT4S 2015.
design-oriented perspective on the smart grid. The paper
argues that users can be “designed” as interested in and open V. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
to devices that concern them. They criticize the notion of users The organizers of the workshop wish to acknowledge all
as passive consumers and through the use of the social the participants. Thanks to Elina Ericsson, Cajsa Bartusch and
practice framework they describe how energy may be Andrea Perna for extra efforts on short notice.
redefined in a way, which also gives a new configuration of
the grid. VI. WORKSHOP PAPERS
III. DISCUSSION
[1] C. Bartusch, and A. Perna, “Key actor perspectives on smart gridsA
The discussion started off with the observation qualitative study on barriers and incentives for the development of smart
triggered by the papers on actor perspectives that there are grids in the Swedish power market”.
many different actors involved and consequently various actor [2] T.H. Christensen, “The role of learning and social interaction for
changing practices?”
perspectives on smart grid developments that do not necessary
[3] G. Gaye, and G. Wallenborn, “Multidisciplinary smart Grid research and
coincide. This contributes to the complexity of the the design of users”
development of smart grids and also indicates the need for a [4] G. Kortuem, J. Bourgois, J. van der Linden and B. Price, “Participatory
multidisciplinary approach. Questions arose as to how the Data Analysis: A New Method for Investigating Human Energy
various actor perspectives can be nurtured in a good way, and Practices”
which can be beneficial for society. [5] P.A. Langendahl, M. Cook and S. Potter, ”Social practice theory on tour:
Venturing beyond household aspects of smart grids”.
One viewpoint arising from the papers on learning
processes could be to take such processes as a guideline for
working with smart grids rather than implementing
technocratic developments in society. However, this learning
process takes place on all levels and is not systemized or
synchronized. This calls for theories such as Actor Network
Theory (ANT) and Science and Technology Studies (STS),
but the performative character of learning processes may be
more appropriately addressed through Social Practice Theory.
Social Practice Theory could help in analysing and
understanding how such learning processes take place for
different actors by studying the actual performance of such
learning activities in relation to smart grids, in order to
understand various actor perspectives better.