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.
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
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
Evaluating mitigation strategies for building stocks against absolute climate targets
L Hvid Horup, P K Ohms, M Hauschild, S R B Gummidi, A Q Secher, C Thuesen, M Ryberg
Equity and justice in urban coastal adaptation planning: new evaluation framework
T Okamoto & A Doyon
Normative future visioning: a critical pedagogy for transformative adaptation
T Comelli, M Pelling, M Hope, J Ensor, M E Filippi, E Y Menteşe & J McCloskey
Suburban climate adaptation governance: assumptions and imaginaries affecting peripheral municipalities
L Cerrada Morato
Urban shrinkage as a catalyst for transformative adaptation
L Mabon, M Sato & N Mabon
Maintaining a city against nature: climate adaptation in Beira
J Schubert
Ventilation regulations and occupant practices: undetectable pollution and invisible extraction
J Few, M Shipworth & C Elwell
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
Gender and the heat pump transition
J Crawley, F Wade & M de Wilde
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
European building passports: developments, challenges and future roles
M Buchholz & T Lützkendorf
Decision-support for selecting demolition waste management strategies
M van den Berg, L Hulsbeek & H Voordijk
Assessing social value in housing design: contributions of the capability approach
J-C Dissart & L Ricaurte
Electricity consumption in commercial buildings during Covid-19
G P Duggan, P Bauleo, M Authier, P A Aloise-Young, J Care & D Zimmerle
Disruptive data: historicising the platformisation of Dublin’s taxi industry
J White & S Larsson
Impact of 2050 tree shading strategies on building cooling demands
A Czekajlo, J Alva, J Szeto, C Girling & R Kellett
Social values and social infrastructures: a multi-perspective approach to place
A Legeby & C Pech
Resilience of racialized segregation is an ecological factor: Baltimore case study
S T A Pickett, J M Grove, C G Boone & G L Buckley
Latest Commentaries
Time to Question Demolition!
André Thomsen (Delft University of Technology) comments on the recent Buildings & Cities special issue ‘Understanding Demolition’ and explains why this phenomenon is only beginning to be understood more fully as a social and behavioural set of issues. Do we need an epidemiology of different demolition rates?
Where are Women of Colour in Urban Planning?
Safaa Charafi asks: is it possible to decolonialise the planning profession to create more inclusive and egalitarian urban settings? It is widely accepted that cities are built by men for other men. This male domination in urban planning results in cities that often do not adequately address challenges encountered by women or ethnic and social minorities. Although efforts are being taken to include women in urban planning, women of colour are still under-represented in many countries, resulting in cities that often overlook their needs.