Kulturella aspekter på solvärmetekniken och dess introduktion i Sverige
Doktorandarbete i socialantropologi. Annette Henning disputerade 10 mars 2000 på avhandlingen ”Ambiguous Artefacts. Solar Collectors in Swedish Contexts. On Processes of Cultural Modification”.
Abstract:
In the 1970’s, solar collectors were promoted in Sweden as producers of heat, and the use of them was seen as a way of replacing oil or nuclear power. Twenty years later, some people are still waiting for the real sales boom to come, wondering why it took so long. Others are waiting for the solar heating technology itself ‘to come’. This is the scene of the fieldwork period; 1992 to 1995.
The dissemination of solar collectors is characterised by inertia and a widespread hesitance. The present research has come about to answer questions concerning why, how, and by whom solar collectors are created, promoted, accepted or rejected. An important aim has also been to find out more about the conflicting perceptions of solar collectors as both ‘saviours of the world’ and uninteresting or less credible artefacts that ‘may come in the future’.
Empirical focus lies on a group of companies in the self-build movement and three solar heating projects in Central Sweden. In these contexts, sequences of events and processes of cultural modification are followed in some detail. Through the memories of solar energy professionals and an analysis of bridging cultural categories, it is shown that the four sub-fields are also part of an uneven and more long-term and widely spread process, where social networks are formed and solar collectors slowly gain in status and legitimacy. The theoretical emphasis is on technology as material culture and also on culture as processes of modification and something which is shared to a greater or lesser extent.
Publikationer:
Henning, Annette. Ambiguous Artefacts : Solar Collectors in Swedish Contexts. On Processes of Cultural Modification. Stockholm Studies in Social Anthropology, 44, Stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell International, 2000.
