Home heating cultures in transition : exploring material participation, norms and practices in Swedish households
Palm, Jenny LU
and von Platten, Jenny
LU
(2025)
In Energy, Sustainability and Society
15.
- Abstract
Background: The transition to sustainable energy systems requires a deeper understanding of how households experience and negotiate heating practices over time. In Sweden, where residential heating remains a major source of energy use, heating systems are embedded in daily routines, shaped by evolving technologies, social norms, and material contexts. This study draws on the Energy Cultures Framework and oral history interviews to examine how Swedish households recall and reflect on their “heating careers”, tracing changes in infrastructures, behaviours, and meanings across the life course. Results: The findings disclose a transition from manual, labour-intensive systems to automated and centralised heating solutions, alongside shifts... (More)
Background: The transition to sustainable energy systems requires a deeper understanding of how households experience and negotiate heating practices over time. In Sweden, where residential heating remains a major source of energy use, heating systems are embedded in daily routines, shaped by evolving technologies, social norms, and material contexts. This study draws on the Energy Cultures Framework and oral history interviews to examine how Swedish households recall and reflect on their “heating careers”, tracing changes in infrastructures, behaviours, and meanings across the life course. Results: The findings disclose a transition from manual, labour-intensive systems to automated and centralised heating solutions, alongside shifts in comfort expectations and user engagement. Narratives highlight how certain practices have persisted, been abandoned, or re-emerged, particularly during moments of disruption such as the 2022 energy crisis. While automated systems offer convenience, they can also reduce energy awareness and user agency. Financial constraints, warm rent arrangements, and housing conditions further shape how households engage with heating transitions, revealing inequalities in the capacity to act. Conclusions: Understanding home heating as a socio-technical and emotionally embedded practice is crucial for designing inclusive energy transitions. This study shows how identity, habit, memory, and structural conditions shape household heating cultures over time. Oral histories offer valuable insight into how people adapt to and resist change, emphasising the need for policies that acknowledge diverse experiences, promote energy literacy, and address the socio-material inequalities that influence participation in heating transitions.
(Less)
- author
- Palm, Jenny
LU
and von Platten, Jenny
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-12
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Energy culture, Heating practices, Home heating, Household engagement, Oral history, Sustainable energy transitions, Sweden
- in
- Energy, Sustainability and Society
- volume
- 15
- article number
- 38
- publisher
- Springer Science and Business Media B.V.
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105015360787
- ISSN
- 2192-0567
- DOI
- 10.1186/s13705-025-00539-7
- project
- Looking back, moving forwards: a social and cultural history of home heating
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 88dcd283-583a-4712-a029-268b58de4ff9
- date added to LUP
- 2025-09-25 10:38:24
- date last changed
- 2025-09-26 08:42:35
@article{88dcd283-583a-4712-a029-268b58de4ff9,
abstract = {{<p>Background: The transition to sustainable energy systems requires a deeper understanding of how households experience and negotiate heating practices over time. In Sweden, where residential heating remains a major source of energy use, heating systems are embedded in daily routines, shaped by evolving technologies, social norms, and material contexts. This study draws on the Energy Cultures Framework and oral history interviews to examine how Swedish households recall and reflect on their “heating careers”, tracing changes in infrastructures, behaviours, and meanings across the life course. Results: The findings disclose a transition from manual, labour-intensive systems to automated and centralised heating solutions, alongside shifts in comfort expectations and user engagement. Narratives highlight how certain practices have persisted, been abandoned, or re-emerged, particularly during moments of disruption such as the 2022 energy crisis. While automated systems offer convenience, they can also reduce energy awareness and user agency. Financial constraints, warm rent arrangements, and housing conditions further shape how households engage with heating transitions, revealing inequalities in the capacity to act. Conclusions: Understanding home heating as a socio-technical and emotionally embedded practice is crucial for designing inclusive energy transitions. This study shows how identity, habit, memory, and structural conditions shape household heating cultures over time. Oral histories offer valuable insight into how people adapt to and resist change, emphasising the need for policies that acknowledge diverse experiences, promote energy literacy, and address the socio-material inequalities that influence participation in heating transitions.</p>}},
author = {{Palm, Jenny and von Platten, Jenny}},
issn = {{2192-0567}},
keywords = {{Energy culture; Heating practices; Home heating; Household engagement; Oral history; Sustainable energy transitions; Sweden}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Springer Science and Business Media B.V.}},
series = {{Energy, Sustainability and Society}},
title = {{Home heating cultures in transition : exploring material participation, norms and practices in Swedish households}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/228438070/Palm_von_Platten_2025_JustHeat.pdf}},
doi = {{10.1186/s13705-025-00539-7}},
volume = {{15}},
year = {{2025}},
}