From trial runs to tough times: how experimentation in a Living Lab setting can build household energy resilience

Consumption and Society, vol. 5, pp. 373–400

Abstract

Living Labs have emerged in the 2000s as experimental settings where diverse actors collectively produce knowledge on transforming aspects of everyday life, including everyday practices. However, Living Labs are often short term, and research on their lasting effects is limited. This article investigates how participation in Living Labs focusing on sustainable heating and laundry practices contributed to the development of household resilience, which helped participants navigate two major disruptions: the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2022–3 energy crisis following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Drawing on Schatzki’s conceptualization of practices, the article conceptualizes household energy resilience as practice and exemplifies how it is shaped by prior learning, in this case through experimentation. Using data from follow-up studies conducted three years later in Finland and the Netherlands with participants from the Living Labs that took place in 2018, it examines long-lasting effects of experiments with everyday practices on household energy consumption. Findings show that earlier experimentation had helped building household energy resilience in two ways: many changes in energy-related practices were sustained, as participants had learned to meet the teleoaffective structures of practices in alternative ways (resilience as practice), while some practices had never changed (resilient practices).

Authors 4

1. Véronique Vasseur

   Maastricht University

   Affiliation as printed

   https://dx.doi.org/https://ror.org/02jz4aj89Maastricht University, The Netherlands

2. Kaisa Matschoss

   University of Helsinki

   Affiliation as printed

   https://dx.doi.org/https://ror.org/040af2s02University of Helsinki, Finland

3. Julia Backhaus Aachen

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   https://dx.doi.org/https://ror.org/04xfq0f34RWTH Aachen University, Germany

4. Senja Laakso

   University of Helsinki

   Affiliation as printed

   https://dx.doi.org/https://ror.org/040af2s02University of Helsinki, Finland