Sociologkongres 2016
Changing the focus on users and energy consumption:
From ‘resource man’ to comfort conventions and everyday
practitioners
Line Valdorff Madsen
Sustainable Cities and Housing
Danish Building Research Institute
Aalborg University Copenhagen
ACM Interactions, XXI.4 2014
UserTEC – User practices, technologies and residential energy consumption
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Background
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PhD project about the relations between comfort, homeliness and energy
consumption in housing from an everyday life perspective, with the dwelling as a
spatial context.
”Buildings don’t use energy, people do”
Energy is consumed through daily home-making practices
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Kilde: Energistatistik 2013
Interests and aims
Examine comfort as a social practice concept  comfort as social and
b o d i l y m e a n i n g s a n d c o m p e t e n c e s t h a t ‘g u i d e ’ e v e r y d a y p r a c t i c e s i n t h e
home
Examine notions of comfort and notions of home as interrelated
- And how all of our senses are involved in perceiving and practicing
these
Examine conventions of comfort and homeliness and what this means for
energy consumption in housing
Refocus on what a comfortable home is  Understand comfort as a
meaningful social practice concept that c ould inform building and
retrofitting of sustainable housing.
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The concept of comfort
Te c h n ica l a p p ro a c h: s ta n d a rd i s e d n o r m s a n d s t r u c t u re s
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“ Thermal comfort ”
An attribute
Adaptation
S o c io - te c hnica l a p p ro a c h: h i s t o r i c a l , c u l t u ra l a n d s o c i a l c o n te x t
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Conventions or norms
Heating and cooling routines (practices)
 Ev e r yd ay h o m e - m a k i n g p ra c t i c e s
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S o c i a l , b o d i l y, m e n t a l a n d m a t e r i a l e l e m e n t s
C o m f o r t a s a n e m b o d i e d a n d s h a r e d m e a n i n g e l e m e n t i n s o c i a l p ra c t i c e s
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Home and homeliness
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House and home: physical structure and social idea
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Home understood as both material structure and social construct
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Home is a spatial context: the place where daily (energy-consuming)
home-making practices are acted out
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Through home-making practices we relate to both material stuff and
people – and create home!
(Blunt & Dowling 2006, Mallet 2004, Ellsworth-Krebs et al. 2015)
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Social practices
”Society is seen as constituted by social practices that are produced and
r e p r o d u c e d a c r o s s t i m e a n d s p a c e .”
(Røpke, 2009)
”A p r a c t i c e i s a r o u t i n i z e d t y p e o f b e h a v i o u r w h i c h c o n s i s t s o f s e v e r a l
elements, interconnected to one another: forms of bodily activities, forms
of mental activities, ’things’ and their use, a background knowledge in the
f o r m o f u n d e r s t a n d i n g , k n o w - h o w, s t a t e s o f e m o t i o n a n d m o t i v a t i o n a l
k n o w l e d g e .”
(Reckwitz, 2002)
”(…) practices are defined by interdependent relations between materials ,
c o m p e t e n c e s a n d m e a n i n g s .”
(Shove et al. 2012)
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Qualitative field study
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In-depth interviews (incl. home tours) and visual methods (photo
elicitation study)
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Three groups of single -family housing, related to building age, all with
district heating
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17 Informants in 14 houses: all but one are home -owners, lower to
higher middle class and living as nuclear families with or without
children at home (except one widowed woman)
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Comfort: Space and indoor climate
“ ( … ) w e l i v e d i n a s m a l l t e r r a c e d h o u s e ( … ) i t w a s a l i t t l e h a r d t o ke e p
w a r m , a n d t h e r e w a s a d r a u g h t a n d t h i n g s l i ke t h a t … b e s i d e s , t h e n i t w a s
also a good deal smaller than this, I think we had 93 m2, my wife and I, we
h a d a r o o m , a b e d r o o m ( … ) t h e b e d w a s f r o m w a l l t o w a l l … t h a t ’s h o w
small it was (…) the children, they had a communal room. So it sure meant
a lot to move here (…) the children had more space, well, we all had more
space, but the children got a room each , and we got a proper bedroom, a
decent office. So, I’ll say it was in many ways (…) this was just quite much
b e t t e r, b e c a u s e i t ’s n o t o n l y t h e s p a c e , i t ’s a l s o t h e h e a t i n g , a n d h o w
comfortable that is, well it also seemed a little more humid, in relation to
h o w i t f e e l s i n a n e w h o u s e l i ke t h i s , w h e r e y o u h a v e t h e v e n t i l a t i o n
system which replaces the air all the time, so when it comes to comfort, it
means a lot ”
( K a s p e r, 3 5 , 2 0 1 3 )
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Comfort: Heating and control
” ( … ) u n d e r f l o o r h e a t i n g , I w o u l d s a y i t i s l o v e l y, i t i s w o n d e r f u l t o w a l k
around on the warm floor, but it, well the radiators , you can turn them up
and then the heat comes in a short while, and the same way you can turn
them down, and it will be registered quickly, that is what I had to get
used to (…) I think it is hard to control”
(Marianne, 69, 2001)
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Comfort: Sweaters and fresh air
“ Then you
types that
because it
s m o ke ( … )
door ”
j u s t p u t o n a n o t h e r s w e a t e r a n d s l i p p e r s . We ’ r e p r o b a b l y t h e
w o u l d r a t h e r h a v e f r e s h a i r a n d t h e n p u t o n a n o t h e r s w e a t e r,
s h o u l d n o t b e l i ke s m e l l i n g o f t h e w o o d - s t o v e a n d r a t h e r n o t o f
I would rather go and get another sweater than not opening the
(Helle, late 40s, 1974)
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Interests of paper
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How conventions of comfort are expressed in everyday life
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How ideas about comfort is constructed on both a micro and a macro level
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Understanding comfort as both an element in daily home-making practices
and societal conventions structuring how we go about making a home as
well as how we built houses
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Thank you for listening –
L i n e Va l d o r f f M a d s e n
lvm@sbi.aau.dk
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Theoretical inspiration
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S e n s o r y e t h n o g ra p hy ( P i n k )
P h e n o m e n o l o g y ( M e r l e a u - Po n t y, H e i d e g g e r )
P ra c t i c e t h e o r y ( G ra m - H a n s s e n , Re c k w i t z , S h o v e e t a l . )
Theories of home (Blunt & Dowling 2006)
T h e o r i e s o f s p a c e a n d p l a c e ( M a s s e y, S i m o n s e n , L e fe b v re )
E n e rg y C o n s u m p t i o n a n d e v e r yd ay l i fe ( S t re n g e rs , M a l l e r )
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