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“Home” has become a commercialised place in contemporary Sweden. As both cause and ef- fect of this development, the Swedish market for furniture and interior decoration has grown significantly during the last twenty years. Retailers, television shows and magazines have con- tributed to a steadily progressing market, where consumers shop for the latest in furniture as well as the latest ideas and
The ability to handle sensory conflicts and use the most appropriate sensory information is vital for successful recovery of human postural control after injury. The objective was to determine if virtual reality (VR) could provide a vehicle for sensory training, and determine the temporal and spatial nature of such adaptive changes. Twenty healthy subjects participated in the study (10 females). T
Dinoflagellates are a group of protists whose genome is unique among eukaryotes in terms of base composition, chromosomal structure and gene expression. Even after decades of research, the structure and behavior of their amazing chromosomes—which without nucleosomes exist in a liquid crystalline state—are still poorly understood. We used fl
Climate change is not only changing the Arctic environment and ecosystems: it is also opening up the idea of the region as a last frontier to be explored. Recent representations of the future for the Arctic have become closely associated with various business-friendly opportunities as the land and sea ice is melting: They often represent so-called win-win solutions to climate change, also for Arct
The Arctic is a popular place to do research. Many countries fund scientific research projects in the region, and international scientists are a considerable part of the Arctic population. Knowledge and expertise about the Arctic is no longer restricted to the Arctic states. Less controversial than flag planting at the North Pole and test drilling for oil, scientists and research stations are ofte
Flexible consumption in the household sector concerns individuals’ daily choices and the routines that develop in their households. Targeting household-level energy consumption therefore requires an understanding of energy consumption in relation to individual household members’ activity patterns. Individual time-diaries reveal when, for how long and where energy-related activities occur, permitti
In this chapter, we discuss the need for deeper knowledge about the relation between people’s daily activities and their electricity use and how to increase our knowledge through time use surveys and the visualization of aggregate activity patterns. To understand people’s energy consumption and how to improve energy efficiency or reduce demand during certain peak hours requires an understanding of
Nuclear power plants generate electricity and a large amount of waste heat which is valuable for cogeneration. District heating (DH) is a suitable technology to decarbonize the European heat sector. By contrast with most of nuclear non-electric applications, nuclear district heating (NDH) has already been implemented in Europe, thus providing us with some valuable empirical insights. This paper in
Purpose: This paper studies a Swedish municipality that wants to go beyond its own operations, involving the local industry in saving energy to improve the environment. The paper aims to analyse the experiences and practical implications of using policy networks for implementing energy-efficiency measures in private industrial companies. Design/methodology/approach: The researchers closely followe
This article analyses the factors influencing stakeholder participation in municipal energy and climate planning, together with stakeholder experiences of participation in such processes. The article presents findings from a survey of 60 Swedish municipalities and detailed case studies of energy and climate planning in five Swedish municipalities to explore which stakeholders are involved, how and
Current climate change is opening up the Arctic region, not only in physical terms, as ice melts and former solid frozen ocean becomes penetrable for transport and resource extraction, but also in terms of opening up to global concerns as a contested political space: geopolitical issues that used to define the Arctic has become more complicated. It is challenging for the current cooperation in the
This article focuses on the development of sustainable energy systems in the Swedish local context and, specifically, on the actors that have proved to be crucial for such transitions: municipally owned energy companies. With the theoretical lens inspired by LTS's (large technical systems), the concept of the system builder was analyzed for the purpose of further understanding what characterizes t
Examining renovation processes having reduced energy consumption as an explicit goal, this article considers how energy efficiency is made part of renovation processes, focusing on the planning and design phase. Interviews and participant observations of meetings have been conducted. Applying a framework developed in practice theory, we demonstrate the importance of understanding routines, technol
Swedish municipalities have traditionally had significant powers and played a major role in implementing national energy strategies. This paper describes the factors influencing development of municipal climate and energy plans in five Swedish municipalities and assesses the relevance and importance of these factors from theoretical and practical perspectives. The questions raised in the paper are
Policies to reduce household energy use usually target the individual customer. This is probably one explanation for the limited effect of many information policies, because two concepts with different meanings are confused: individual and household. In most contexts, an individual stands for what s/he does, but in the policy context, an individual is taken to represent the entire household. This
Improved industrial energy efficiency is a cornerstone in climate change mitigation. Research results suggest that there is still major untapped potential for improved industrial energy efficiency. The major model used to explain the discrepancy between optimal level of energy efficiency and the current level is the barrier model, e.g., different barriers to energy efficiency inhibit adoption of c
