Convenience renovation and non-transition- contractor SMEs operating in the detached housing market.

Paper i proceeding, 2014

Single houses built in Sweden before 1980 are in need of renovation to meet the 2020 standards for energy performance as a large majority is still warmed with electricity, insufficiently insulated and exhibit poor energy efficiency. Such small scale renovations have traditionally been the market of small and medium sized contractors (SME’s) interacting directly with the house owners. The main purposes of this contribution are therefore to investigate how renovation of single family houses occurs when in interaction with craftsman SMEs and secondly to envisage activities in small craftsman organisations under transformation towards delivering sustainable buildings. A selective literature review of activities in SMEs facing sustainable housing transition is carried out. Case studies of small craftsman companies; including carpenters, electricians, and plumbers and their customer relations are ongoing. This paper presents a study of three craftsmen contractors and their interaction with potential customers, owners of single family houses. Through interviewing, participant observation, and shadowing the sales processes and negotiations are followed. Theoretically the study draws on Goffman´s concepts of performance, staging and encounters. The result shows that occasions for sustainable renovation are staged and “inter-acted” into convenience renovation, renovation of selected elements of the house and in support of aesthetic and or functional needs of the house owner. Main activities envisaged for transitional activities are strategizing, networking, exercising politics and doing marketing. Transition can for example be exercised from the network of the SMEs.