• Energy Research
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• 12. Responsible consumption close
• 9. Industry and infrastructure close
• IT University of Copenhagen close

Abstract According to many visions for smart grids, consumers will come to play a more ‘active’ role in the energy systems of tomorrow. In this paper, we examine how the future ‘flexible electricity consumer’ is imagined in the Danish National Smart Grid Strategy. Our analysis of reports produced by the national Smart Grid Network shows that this vision relies on a techno-centric and rather ‘inflexible’ consumer figuration. However, rather than adopting a conventional social science approach in order to criticize this narrow imaginary, we show that potentials for critique and alternatives can be found internally in the Smart Grid Network. Paying attention to different stories, we thus aim to characterize particular forms of ‘infra-critique’ and ‘infra-reflexivity’ emerging from within the field. This mode of reflexivity, we argue, opens up to more flexible and reflexive conceptions of the ‘flexible electricity consumer’ as well as more flexible relations between ‘the technical’ and ‘the social.’

Abstract According to many visions for smart grids, consumers will come to play a more ‘active’ role in the energy systems of tomorrow. In this paper, we examine how the future ‘flexible electricity consumer’ is imagined in the Danish National Smart Grid Strategy. Our analysis of reports produced by the national Smart Grid Network shows that this vision relies on a techno-centric and rather ‘inflexible’ consumer figuration. However, rather than adopting a conventional social science approach in order to criticize this narrow imaginary, we show that potentials for critique and alternatives can be found internally in the Smart Grid Network. Paying attention to different stories, we thus aim to characterize particular forms of ‘infra-critique’ and ‘infra-reflexivity’ emerging from within the field. This mode of reflexivity, we argue, opens up to more flexible and reflexive conceptions of the ‘flexible electricity consumer’ as well as more flexible relations between ‘the technical’ and ‘the social.’

AbstractOrganization studies have shown limited interest in the part that scaling plays in organizational responses to climate change and sustainability. Moreover, while scales are viewed as central to the diagnosis of the organizational challenges posed by climate change and sustainability, the role of scaling in meeting these challenges has not yet been recognized. By analysing two ethnographic case studies, conducted at Samsø Energy Academy and Farendløse Cider Works, respectively, the authors identify scaling as a core activity of the sustainability organization. The two organizations studied each situate their operations at the heart of the climate change problematic – one in organic farming, the other in renewable energy – and, employing what the authors term ‘the method of scaling’, they impose order on the world in which they operate. The method of scaling helps the organizations relate their actions to the ambiguous concepts of sustainability and climate change. The authors find that the two organizations’ scaling activities occur in three modes: rejection, innovation and conscious adoption of core concepts such as sustainability and climate change. These modes of scaling help organizations turn something as immense as the climate into a small and manageable problem, thus making abstract concepts part of concrete, organizational practice.

AbstractOrganization studies have shown limited interest in the part that scaling plays in organizational responses to climate change and sustainability. Moreover, while scales are viewed as central to the diagnosis of the organizational challenges posed by climate change and sustainability, the role of scaling in meeting these challenges has not yet been recognized. By analysing two ethnographic case studies, conducted at Samsø Energy Academy and Farendløse Cider Works, respectively, the authors identify scaling as a core activity of the sustainability organization. The two organizations studied each situate their operations at the heart of the climate change problematic – one in organic farming, the other in renewable energy – and, employing what the authors term ‘the method of scaling’, they impose order on the world in which they operate. The method of scaling helps the organizations relate their actions to the ambiguous concepts of sustainability and climate change. The authors find that the two organizations’ scaling activities occur in three modes: rejection, innovation and conscious adoption of core concepts such as sustainability and climate change. These modes of scaling help organizations turn something as immense as the climate into a small and manageable problem, thus making abstract concepts part of concrete, organizational practice.