Monthly Archives: October 2015

Intermediaries in the energy transition: The invisible work of creating markets for sustainable technology solutions (TRIPOD)

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TRIPOD is a new project funded by the Academy of Finland and led by Sampsa Hyysalo at Aalto University School of Art and Design. Consortium partners include Syke (Finnish Environment Institute), Aalto University School of Business, and Consumer Society Research Centre (CSRC), University of Helsinki. TRIPOD investigates the role of intermediation in energy transitions by specifying what work intermediation performs in different actor configurations and contexts. We focus on solutions for energy efficiency, distributed electricity generation, heating systems based on renewable energy sources, and the related solutions for timing of consumption and storage of electricity and/or heat. The objectives of TRIPOD are to

  1. Identify and assess the role of intermediaries in creating, channeling and coordinating market and broader societal demand for new low carbon technologies and services and in adapting these technologies to local contexts.
  2. Establish the influence of different intermediary organizations and forms of work on different types of energy innovation and energy transition processes.
  3. Examine how energy transition intermediaries come into being, establish their functional roles, evolve, and gain legitimacy.
  4. Compare intermediation in different contexts (between government and citizens, between energy and technology providers and users) and in different actor configurations (including or excluding certain market/societal actors) and organizational settings.
  5. Distinguish between generic aspects of intermediation in energy transitions, and aspects that are specific to particular contexts or configurations.

CSRC is in charge of sub-project 1, which buildings on case studies of intermediation in the interface between energy consumption and production. Contact: Eva Heiskanen (eva.heiskanen@helsinki.fi) ja Kaisa Matschoss (kaisa.matschoss@helsinki.fi).

Osallistuvan päätöksenteon seminaarisarja Kuluttajatutkimuskeskuksessa

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Helsingin yliopiston Kuluttajatutkimuskeskus ja PE2020 hanke ovat käynnistäneet osallistuvaa päätöksentekoa käsittelevän seminaarisarjan syksyllä 2015. Seminaarisarjan tarkoituksena on tarjota foorumi keskustelulle osallistuvan päätöksenteon ja suunnittelun uusista suuntauksista, käytännöistä, ongelmista ja kehittämistarpeista. Seminaari on suunnattu päätöksenteon, politiikan ja suunnittelukäytäntöjen tutkijoille, asiantuntijoille ja jatko-opiskelijoille.

Seminaarit järjestetään kolmen viikon välein perjantaisin klo 13-15 Helsingin yliopiston Kuluttajatutkimuskeskuksessa, Metsätalo, Unioninkatu 40, Seminaarihuone C216.

Lataa ohjelma tästä: Osallistuvan päätöksenteon seminaari 2015

New article on the political economy of household services in Europe

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Kristiina Aalto is one of the authors in a edited volume called The Political Economy of Household Services in Europe (edited by Clément Carbonnier and Nathalie Morel). Her article is titled: The Finnish Tax Reduction For Domestic Costs: Consumption Patterns. The book analyses the aims pursued with policies to support household services, and the ways in which the issues have been framed. It examines the resultant labour market outcomes, focusing on the forms and quality of employment in the household services sector, and highlighting both the symbolic and economic effects of the construction of domestic and care services as low-skilled, low-value work. The authors demonstrate how these policies have actively contributed to the structuring of dualisms within the labour market, reinforcing social, gendered and ethnic divides. They also shed light on the distributive effects of these policies, which essentially benefit affluent households, and question their efficiency, not least with regard to their employment objectives.

Download the flyer for the book Flyer-The Political Economy of Household Services in Europe 30.