From Awareness to Empowerment: Using Design Fiction to Explore Paths Towards a Sustainable Energy Future

Sebastian Prost; Elke Mattheiss; Manfred Tscheligi

doi:10.1145/2675133.2675281

From Awareness to Empowerment: Using Design Fiction to Explore Paths Towards a Sustainable Energy Future

Sebastian Prost (Speaker), Elke Mattheiss, Manfred Tscheligi

Center for Technology Experience

Research output: Chapter in Book or Conference Proceedings › Conference Proceedings with Oral Presentation › peer-review

Abstract

This paper presents a novel application of participatory design fiction for sustainable domestic energy consumption. In our study we examine how social practices relate to a newly developed energy management system introduced to households. We explore how design fiction can be used to identify current design limitations and to showcase future design directions to overcome these limitations. In particular, we investigated how energy consumption feedback is leaving users in a state of "helplessness" despite raising awareness of their environmental impact. Through participatory fictional future story-writing workshops we identified five levels of empowerment that design for sustainability practitioners can engage with. Our proposal is to use those levels of empowerment to reframe sustainable design by shifting from behaviour to social practices and from awareness to empowerment.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	CSCW´15 Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Conferene on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing
Pages	1649-1658
Number of pages	10
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/2675133.2675281
Publication status	Published - 2015
Event	CSCW 2015 - 18th ACM conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing - Duration: 14 Mar 2015 → 18 Mar 2015

Conference

Conference	CSCW 2015 - 18th ACM conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing
Period	14/03/15 → 18/03/15

Research Field

Former Research Field - Technology Experience

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1145/2675133.2675281Licence: Unspecified

Cite this

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title = "From Awareness to Empowerment: Using Design Fiction to Explore Paths Towards a Sustainable Energy Future",

abstract = "This paper presents a novel application of participatory design fiction for sustainable domestic energy consumption. In our study we examine how social practices relate to a newly developed energy management system introduced to households. We explore how design fiction can be used to identify current design limitations and to showcase future design directions to overcome these limitations. In particular, we investigated how energy consumption feedback is leaving users in a state of {"}helplessness{"} despite raising awareness of their environmental impact. Through participatory fictional future story-writing workshops we identified five levels of empowerment that design for sustainability practitioners can engage with. Our proposal is to use those levels of empowerment to reframe sustainable design by shifting from behaviour to social practices and from awareness to empowerment.",

author = "Sebastian Prost and Elke Mattheiss and Manfred Tscheligi",

year = "2015",

doi = "10.1145/2675133.2675281",

language = "English",

isbn = "978-1-4503-2922-4",

pages = "1649--1658",

booktitle = "CSCW´15 Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Conferene on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing",

note = "CSCW 2015 - 18th ACM conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing ; Conference date: 14-03-2015 Through 18-03-2015",

}

Prost, S, Mattheiss, E & Tscheligi, M 2015, From Awareness to Empowerment: Using Design Fiction to Explore Paths Towards a Sustainable Energy Future. in CSCW´15 Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Conferene on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing. pp. 1649-1658, CSCW 2015 - 18th ACM conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, 14/03/15. https://doi.org/10.1145/2675133.2675281

From Awareness to Empowerment: Using Design Fiction to Explore Paths Towards a Sustainable Energy Future. / Prost, Sebastian (Speaker); Mattheiss, Elke; Tscheligi, Manfred.
CSCW´15 Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Conferene on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing. 2015. p. 1649-1658.

Research output: Chapter in Book or Conference Proceedings › Conference Proceedings with Oral Presentation › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - From Awareness to Empowerment: Using Design Fiction to Explore Paths Towards a Sustainable Energy Future

AU - Mattheiss, Elke

AU - Tscheligi, Manfred

A2 - Prost, Sebastian

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - This paper presents a novel application of participatory design fiction for sustainable domestic energy consumption. In our study we examine how social practices relate to a newly developed energy management system introduced to households. We explore how design fiction can be used to identify current design limitations and to showcase future design directions to overcome these limitations. In particular, we investigated how energy consumption feedback is leaving users in a state of "helplessness" despite raising awareness of their environmental impact. Through participatory fictional future story-writing workshops we identified five levels of empowerment that design for sustainability practitioners can engage with. Our proposal is to use those levels of empowerment to reframe sustainable design by shifting from behaviour to social practices and from awareness to empowerment.

AB - This paper presents a novel application of participatory design fiction for sustainable domestic energy consumption. In our study we examine how social practices relate to a newly developed energy management system introduced to households. We explore how design fiction can be used to identify current design limitations and to showcase future design directions to overcome these limitations. In particular, we investigated how energy consumption feedback is leaving users in a state of "helplessness" despite raising awareness of their environmental impact. Through participatory fictional future story-writing workshops we identified five levels of empowerment that design for sustainability practitioners can engage with. Our proposal is to use those levels of empowerment to reframe sustainable design by shifting from behaviour to social practices and from awareness to empowerment.

U2 - 10.1145/2675133.2675281

DO - 10.1145/2675133.2675281

M3 - Conference Proceedings with Oral Presentation

SN - 978-1-4503-2922-4

SP - 1649

EP - 1658

BT - CSCW´15 Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Conferene on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing

T2 - CSCW 2015 - 18th ACM conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing

Y2 - 14 March 2015 through 18 March 2015

ER -

From Awareness to Empowerment: Using Design Fiction to Explore Paths Towards a Sustainable Energy Future

Abstract

Conference

Research Field

UN SDGs

Access to Document

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Cite this