Consumer, client or citizen? How Norwegian local governments domesticate website technology and configure their users

“…This means that we -as suggested above -focus on three aspects: (1) Changes in energy-related practices, in particular with respect to energy efficiency and energy saving, (2) Changes in the sense-making related to the use of energy, and (3) Related processes of learning. Most studies of domestication employ data from interviews, surveys and/or printed sources (Berker et al, 2006;Liste and Sørensen, 2015). Thus, they mainly consider people's accounts of their practices, sense-making and learning.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Concerned consumption. Global warming changing household domestication of energy

et al. 2016

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper addresses possible effects of the growing focus on global warming on households' domestication of energy and the dynamics of energy consumption by comparing data pertaining to the domestication of energy within Norwegian households from two time periods: first, 1991-1995, when climate change was given little public attention, and, second, 2006-2009, after climate change became a major public concern. In the first period, the domestication of energy resulted in an energy culture emphasizing comfort and convenience with respect to everyday life and the abundant supply of clean hydropower. In the second period, this culture seemed to have changed, making many households concerned about their energy consumption. Consumption of energy was linked to climate change, and many interviewees claimed to save energy. However, the dominant expectation was still to be able to manage everyday life in a convenient and comfortable way. Thus, climate change concerns produced important but not comprehensive changes in the domestication of energy. A main effect was feelings of guilt, tempered by arguments regarding why change is difficult and complaints about political inaction. Thus, public engagement with climate change issues may facilitate energy efficiency policy but to succeed, wider climate policy measures seem to be needed.

show abstract

“…For Beer the new metrics are indicative of new power, where agency and discretion are subverted or eroded by our attachment to technology and encoded rules by algorithms (2016: 111-112). Indeed, the increasing centrality of information governance bears out Liste and Sørensen's (2015) concerns about the effect of reconfiguration of technologies on users -and, implicitly, non-users.…”

Section: Disconnected: the Shape Of Information Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disconnected: Non-Users of Information Communication Technologies

Hardey

Atkinson

2018

Sociological Research Online

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Growing concern about the impact of constant, mediated connection has often focused on the ways in which technologies contribute to a ubiquitous sense of presence and interaction, and the kind of invasion that this may represent to a sense of self and privacy. Discussion about information communication technologies (ICTs) is increasingly converging around the need for a deepened understanding of their effect on pace of life, methods of work, consumption and wellbeing. Counter-narratives to overwhelming hyper-connectivity have emerged as a result of these changes. Using qualitative interview data from respondents recruited from across the globe, we focus on the strategies and worldviews of those who explicitly reject the use of any ICTs. Our participants relate how, to varying degrees, they have elected to avoid forms of immediate connection, and what they identify as the deep advantages and therapeutic benefits of such ways of being. The article responds to rising social anxieties about being locked into ICT ecologies, and the difficulty of opting out of corporate information-exchange systems. These concerns, we argue, are generating increasing interest in how to manage ICTs more effectively, or to switch off altogether.

show abstract

Consumer, client or citizen? How Norwegian local governments domesticate website technology and configure their users

Cited by 28 publications

References 25 publications

"The Computer Says No!" -- A Case Study on Automated Decision-Making in Public Authorities

"The Computer Says No!" -- A Case Study on Automated Decision-Making in Public Authorities

Concerned consumption. Global warming changing household domestication of energy

Disconnected: Non-Users of Information Communication Technologies

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About