www.buildingsandcities.org/journal-content/special-issues/energy-emerging-tech-gender.html

Energy, Emerging Technologies and Gender in Homes

Energy, Emerging Technologies and Gender in Homes

Gender 'blindness' impacts negatively on engagement with smart home technologies. If the energy transition is to be realised, then gender must be addressed.

This special issue explores key questions in the energy transition: How is gender accounted for in the visions, relationships and practices with smart technologies? How does this impact on energy outcomes? How can gender insights make energy policy more effective?

Guest editorial team: Kirsten Gram-Hanssen, Yolande Strengers, Line K. Aagaard & Kari Dahlgren

Smart home and other emerging technologies (e.g. home automation and load control, solar and battery charging integration, real-time feedback, demand response and/or improved efficiency) require considerable involvement and participation from inhabitants. This special issue reveals why understanding the gender impacts of these technologies is crucial for realising the energy policy, regulatory and building efficiency aspirations.

New research identifies how technology use, energy consumption and everyday practices in homes reflect gendered differences. Evidence is presented that shows policy and industry visions for smart home technologies often neglect the importance of gender in the implementation of technologies into everyday life. A gender 'blindness' is detected which highlights the inequities that characterise technology use, energy consumption, and access in Global North and South contexts.

The special issue calls for more inclusive technologies designed for different competences, flexible practices, routines and values. More inclusive visions within policy and industry are needed to acknowledge, regulate with, and design for the lived experiences, gendered dynamics and everyday practices of people. The special issue calls for more inclusive technologies designed for different competences, flexible practices and routines. Policymakers, technologists and researchers need to carefully consider and attune to these dynamics. Maintaining an intersectional gender lens will be critical to realising energy policy ambitions, and ensuring that the energy transition delivers equitable and inclusive outcomes.

Table of contents

Energy, emerging technologiesand gender in homes [editorial]
Y. Strengers, K. Gram-Hanssen, K. Dahlgren & L.K. Aagaard

Technological fascination and reluctance: gendered practices in the smart home
L. K. Aagard & L.V. Madsen

Masculine roles and practices in homes with photovoltaic systems
M. Mechlenborg & K. Gram-Hanssen

The gender of smart charging
S. Pink

Living in an Active Home: household dynamics and unintended consequences
F. Shirani, K. O'Sullivan, K. Henwood, R. Hale & N. Pidgeon

Energy housekeeping: intersections of gender, domestic labour and technologies
R. Martin

Who cares? How care practices uphold the decentralised energy order
K. Lucas-Healey, H. Ransan-Cooper, H. Temby & A.W. Russell

Attuning smart home scripts to household and energy care
D. Chambers

Emerging technologies' impacts on 'man caves' and their energy demand
Y. Strengers, K. Dahlgren & L. Nicholls

Brokering gender empowerment in energy access in the Global South
A. Schiffer, M. Greene, R. Khalid, C. Foulds, C.A. Vidal, M. Chatterjee, S. Dhar-Bhattacharjee, N. Edomah, O. Sule, D. Palit & A.N. Yesutanbul

The gendering of energy household labour
A. Aggeli, T.H. Christensen & S.P.A.K. Larsen

Gender roles and domestic power in energy-saving home improvements
F. Bartiaux

Feedback on the special issue

Developing an Intersectional Approach to Emerging Energy Technologies in Homes
Tom Hargreaves and Nickhil Sharma

Dismantling Power and Bringing Reflexivity into the Eco-modern Home
O. Osunmuyiwa, H. Ahlborg, M. Hultman, K. Michael & A. Åberg

Gender and Ethics of Care in Energy Systems
Sarah Darby

What is the Problem that Smart Home Technologies Solve?
Sylvia Breukers

Blind Spots in Energy Policy
Lynne Gallagher

Latest Peer-Reviewed Journal Content

Journal Content

Analysing cold-climate urban heat islands using personal weather station data
J Taylor, C H Simpson, J Vanhatalo, H Sohail, O Brousse, & C Heaviside

Are simple models for natural ventilation suitable for shelter design?
A Conzatti, D Fosas de Pando, B Chater & D Coley

Impact of roofing materials on school temperatures in tropical Africa
E F Amankwaa, B M Roberts, P Mensah & K V Gough

Acceptability of sufficiency consumption policies by Finnish households
E Nuorivaara & S Ahvenharju

Key factors for revitalising heritage buildings through adaptive reuse
É Savoie, J P Sapinski & A-M Laroche

Cooler streets for a cycleable city: assessing policy alignment
C Tang & J Bush

Understanding the embodied carbon credentials of modern methods of construction
R O'Hegarty, A McCarthy, J O'Hagan, T Thanapornpakornsin, S Raffoul & O Kinnane

The changing typology of urban apartment buildings in Aurinkolahti
S Meriläinen & A Tervo

Embodied climate impacts in urban development: a neighbourhood case study
S Sjökvist, N Francart, M Balouktsi & H Birgisdottir

Environmental effects of urban wind energy harvesting: a review
I Tsionas, M laguno-Munitxa & A Stephan

Office environment and employee differences by company health management certification
S Arata, M Sugiuchi, T Ikaga, Y Shiraishi, T Hayashi, S Ando & S Kawakubo

Spatiotemporal evaluation of embodied carbon in urban residential development
I Talvitie, A Amiri & S Junnila

Energy sufficiency in buildings and cities: current research, future directions [editorial]
M Sahakian, T Fawcett & S Darby

Sufficiency, consumption patterns and limits: a survey of French households
J Bouillet & C Grandclément

Health inequalities and indoor environments: research challenges and priorities [editorial]
M Ucci & A Mavrogianni

Operationalising energy sufficiency for low-carbon built environments in urbanising India
A B Lall & G Sethi

Promoting practices of sufficiency: reprogramming resource-intensive material arrangements
T H Christensen, L K Aagaard, A K Juvik, C Samson & K Gram-Hanssen

Structural barriers to sufficiency: the contribution of research on elites
M Koch, K Emilsson, J Lee & H Johansson

Disrupting the imaginaries of urban action to deliver just adaptation [editorial]
V Castán-Broto, M Olazabal & G Ziervogel

Nature for resilience reconfigured: global- to-local translation of frames in Africa
K Rochell, H Bulkeley & H Runhaar

How hegemonic discourses of sustainability influence urban climate action
V Castán Broto, L Westman & P Huang

Fabric first: is it still the right approach?
N Eyre, T Fawcett, M Topouzi, G Killip, T Oreszczyn, K Jenkinson & J Rosenow

Social value of the built environment [editorial]
F Samuel & K Watson

Understanding demolition [editorial]
S Huuhka

Data politics in the built environment [editorial]
A Karvonen & T Hargreaves


See all

Latest Commentaries

A session from a participatory drawing workshop at the Rumi Library, led by Sadia Sharmin in 2019

While Living Labs are often framed as structured, institutionalised spaces for innovation, Sadia Sharmin (Habitat Forum Berlin) reinterprets the concept through the lens of grassroots urban practices. She argues that self-organised knowledge spaces can function as Living Labs by fostering situated learning, collective agency, and community resilience. The example of a Living Lab in Bangladesh provides a model pathway to civic participation and spatial justice.

Climate Mitigation & Carbon Budgets: Research Challenges

Thomas Lützkendorf (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) explains how the research community has helped to change the climate change policy landscape for the construction and real estate sectors, particularly for mitigating GHG emissions. Evidence can be used to influence policy pathways and carbon budgets, and to develop detailed carbon strategies and implementation. A key challenge is to create a stronger connection between the requirements for individual buildings and the national reduction pathways for the built environment.

Join Our Community