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As the Swedish energy system is experiencing capacity shortage challenges brought on by an overburdened grid in an increasingly electrified society, more solutions are needed for its optimization. One proposed solution is the increase of energy flexibility by encouraging public and private actors to enter the so-called local flexibility energy markets. This paper reports on the findings from a qualitative study in which we aimed to articulate how different industry actors conceptualise flexibility. Towards this goal, we employed the theoretical concept of boundary objects to illustrate the different meanings attributed to the same concept. Results show that although a generic definition of flexibility is existent across the different actors, the concept is also understood in accordance with their a)practices and needs, and b) engagement with large actors with significant decision-making power.

The adoption of demand response programs, where end-users adjust their energy consumption to system constraints, is important for achieving a sustainable energy transition. While prior research has examined households' adoption and responses to price signals and tariffs that are used to elicit demand response, less attention has been given to how information on tariffs is differently understood between genders. This study investigates gender differences in both understanding of energy tariffs (energy tariff literacy) and confidence in understanding such tariffs, and examines whether differences in confidence are attributable to differences in understanding. Using secondary data from two studies (N = 1367 and N = 783), findings show a small gender gap in energy tariff literacy, with men scoring slightly higher, in one dataset, and no differences in the other. The confidence gap was substantially larger in both datasets; men reported greater confidence than women, a difference largely unexplained by differences in energy tariff literacy. These results extend gender confidence effects observed in other domains to energy literacy and understanding. Practically, the confidence gap may affect household decisions relating to energy consumption patterns, and risk that behaviour change or investment decisions are made by those with the strongest perceived knowledge, rather than actual knowledge. These findings emphasize the need for a gender-sensitive approach to demand response program design.

 As the Swedish energy system is increasingly overburdened, new challenges arise in a society in which electrification is increasing at a significant pace. One important problem is that, despite enough energy being generated, the current infrastructure cannot deliver it at times when the population demands it the most. The capacity deficit arising at times of peak demand, often during the morning and evening hours, is a complex issue. One short term proposed solution is to incentivize households to reduce their electricity consumption during peak hours.

Towards this end, certain distribution system operators (DSOs) have introduced demand-based electricity distribution tariffs, incentivizing shifts in consumption from peak to off-peak hours. Consumers can respond to such tariffs by engaging in manual shifting and reducing of their consumption at peak times, or by purchasing smart technology that optimizes energy consumption for them, according to external cues such as market prices or tariffs. Either way, households are incentivized to make a change towards sustainable consumption, be it through a purchasing decision or by changeing routines.

In this study we equipped participant households with smart meters which provided them with real time energy consumption information. The households were part of an area in Sweden whose DSO imposed a capacity-based tariff, further incentivizing its users to reduce their power consumption. We conducted in-depth interviews in the homes of the participants with the aim of discussing the decision-making and changes connected to energy consumption in the household.

Results show that gender is a significant emerging theme, affecting decision-making and overall interest on energy issues. The majority of the participants share that most decisions regarding the household’s energy flexibility, choice of electricity retail agreements, or energy-related technology installations are the responsibility of the men in the family, while women are often described as either not involved at all, only in short discussions, or completely unaware. Furthermore, the mere participation to the present study appeared to be the main (and sometimes sole) decision of the men in the household. The resulting material reinforces stereotypical and traditional gender roles of men as technically-interested and savvy, and women as passive consumers of respective technology, which is especially noteworthy as both men and women tended to describe their roles accordingly. Such insights are surprising in a country consistently ranking high in gender equality rapports, indicating that the intersection between gender and energy needs further attention. As energy mediates important aspects such as heating, cooking, communication, entertainment, or security, the person with a dominating power of decision can affect how everyday life unfolds in a shared household, resulting in a power relation unbalance.

The work contributes with a more nuanced perspective of energy consumption which shows that what, when, and how a household consumes (in terms of electricity itself but also ways for effectivization) can be affected by gender roles. Furthermore, this work adds to the body of research focused on energy consumption as part of digital transformation, a process which we argue should not be hindered, but critically examined.

The doctoral period is often described as a linear path, omitting the human dimensions of becoming a scholar. In this volume, the imaginary of the PhD education in Sweden is expanded through the metaphor of the PhD wanderer— an early-career academic venturing into unknown terrains, sometimes becoming lost, at other times finding exciting directions, committing to new routes, and encountering new travellers along the way.

In this collection of essays, academics who have defended their doctoral dissertations and earned their PhDs at Swedish universities reflect on their past experiences. Through these essays, as well as interviews with two senior academics, the contributors show that there is no single path to a PhD, as each process is filled with exploration, vulnerability, adaptability, and human connection. This collection invites prospective, current, and former PhD students—and those who guide them—to appreciate the stories woven into the very first steps of an academic life.

In the context of the current global environmental and infrastructural challenges, many countries are undergoing a transition from a carbon- dependent energy system towards an increasingly renewable one. Due to the resulting increased electrification, one solution to the progressively overburdened energy grids has been the creation of energy communities, seen as legal entities which are citizen-driven and focused on producing and sharing energy. In a project where the aim is to follow the creation of a Swedish energy community, antenarratives are proposed as a method to elicit stories not about what the creation of the EC has been so far, but what the final results are envisioned to be. Storytelling workshops are proposed to a variety of involved types of actors to further understand what the energy community in question is expected to look like in the future. Contrasts between different antenarratives can emerge, making tensions explicit and allowing a process of sensemaking to take place with the aim of understanding how a new actor in the Swedish energy sector is being formed.

 Keywords: energy communities, Swedish energy system, storytelling, antenarrative, narrative

Taking as a starting point the conventional view of ageing as a linear process beginning in a youthful and productive stage but gradually deteriorating, this paper shifts the usual anthropocentric focal point towards technological artifacts which do not conform to this typical view. More specifically, three examples of technologies previously considered obsolete, but which have seen a revival in the last decade, are presented: the so-called dumbphones, analogue cameras, and vinyl players. Although very different at first glance, the three cases of these revived technologies show a similar evolution trajectory which breaks from the typical view of ageing in technological artifacts. Instead, they indicate how their revival does not simply entail a reconsideration of their initial value (such as it is often the case with antiques or heirlooms), but a transformation, hybridisation, and re-envisioned purpose.

To this effect, the agential realism theory is applied to show how the revival of technological artifacts and practices once considered outdated attempts to dissolve binaries such as old/new, young/old, or slow/fast. Furthermore, such artifacts reveal trajectories of ageing that are unlike their human counterparts, but which can make way for new manners of articulating issues pertaining to ageing as a process in humans as well.

The contribution of the paper lies in illustrating how adopting a non-linear view of ageing and fundamentally questioning its inherent binaries has the capacity to produce a much-needed nuanced view of ageing in humans, non-humans, and their sociomaterial entanglements.

 The widespread of digitalization and its consequent adoption of digital navigation tools has led to an increased digitally mediated wayfinding of unknown and known places. In this study, the focus was placed on the latter, namely the exploration of familiar places through Google Maps. This study aimed to understand how familiar places are digitally revisited through the use of the popular Google Maps Street View. By employing digital go-along interviews, participants were invited to choose a known place which they have not physically visited in a significant amount of time and guide a digital walk.

By adopting an agential realist theoretical perspective, Google Maps Street View is articulated as a more-than-digital tool. The main emerging themes consisted of the experienced disruptive elements leading to workarounds, the existent spatiotemporal shifts, and the visibility of present and absent matter emerging from the intra-actions of human and non-human actors.

The work illustrates how digital places are understood and engaged with, and how meaning is ascribed to such digital worlds which come into being through an entanglement of memories, physicality, and digital elements. The paper contributes to an understanding of digital place, being of relevance to future directions in the development of similar navigational technologies, and to policy and legislation being formulated in this area.