Gendered sustainability: Norm-critical explorations of energy practices for everyday transitions

Research Project, 2018 – 2022

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. Co-operative housing societies 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.