10 Fakultät Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://elib.uni-stuttgart.de/handle/11682/11
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Item Open Access Factors that enable or hinder sustained access to sustainable and effective cooking energy services : the case of the informal settlement of Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya(2020) Mbungu, Grace Kageni; Renn, Ortwin (Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c.)Access to sustainable and effective energy services is central to every challenge and opportunity that humanity and the planet face today. As a result, there is unprecedented consensus that the ways in which energy is produced, distributed, and consumed can have major positive or negative consequences for humans, the environment, and the broader ecosystem, and therefore, a direct or indirect effect on achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and complying with the Paris Agreement. The situation in the developed and middle-income countries is such that most households have sustained and effective access to cooking energy services. In contrast, almost 80-90% of household in developing countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, lacks such access or face constant interruptions due to financial insecurities, and unreliable or insecure energy services. Technological development has widely been viewed and supported as the solution to these challenges. However, while technological development is an important element in addressing this challenge, the central role of individual and societal factors in influencing the acceptance, sustainable access, and effective uses of technologies is often overlooked. Nevertheless, technological processes are negotiated, developed, implemented, and used within social contexts. The objective of this thesis is to understand and contextualize the factors that facilitate or hinder sustainable and effective access to cooking energy services within households in the informal settlement of Kibera, with a focus on biomass improved cookstoves (ICSs). Guided by the needs-opportunity-ability model (NOA), this thesis first examines the needs that households seek to fulfil through cooking energy services. It then assesses the state of abilities and opportunities in order to understand the limitations and opportunities available and accessible to households to meet their desired needs. Lastly, the role of individual and societal factors are examined at the micro, meso, and macro levels in enabling or hindering sustainable access and effective use of the cooking energy services sought and desired by households. This approach is especially important because it recognizes that energy access processes are also shaped by a broad spectrum of influences that lie outside the households’ direct control or the nature of technological outcomes. The findings of this thesis show that households have multiple and diverse needs that they seek to fulfil through cooking energy services. Moreover, the findings confirm, as emphasized in the NOA model, the influential and interconnected roles of factors at the micro and macro levels in influencing consumer behavior and outcomes. Furthermore, it is found that meso-level factors also have significant influence on sustained access and effective use of cooking energy services, and might even exert stronger influence than macro-level factors, due to their immediacy and direct connection to the user and their day-to-day activities and livelihoods. This thesis concludes that, rather than household resistance to embracing sustainable and effective cooking energy services, the most persistent barriers to the adoption of sustainable and effective cooking energy services relate to how user needs are understood or fail to be understood, and the lack of appropriate and secure abilities and opportunities. Therefore, while several opportunities to address the challenges of access to clean and effective cooking energy services were identified, a range of individual and structural challenges would also need to be overcome to facilitate sustainable and effective progress. To overcome these challenges in Kibera, a range of options are proposed to improve and strengthen sustained access and effective use of cooking energy services. These recommendations emphasize the need for ongoing and holistic understanding of households' needs and realities, as well as the central role played by interacting forces at the micro, meso, and macro levels in influencing access conditions and outcomes for humans and the environment of advocated cooking energy services. More specifically, the recommendations call for greater attention to the social and contextual dimensions and dynamics of cooking energy production, distribution, and consumption processes, as demonstrated in the ‘landscape’ of cooking energy access that is one of the major outcomes of this thesis.Item Open Access Consumer behavior, social influence, and smart grid implementation(2016) Li, Huijie; Renn, Ortwin (Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c.)To achieve the goals of German energy transition especially in renewable energy shares, the smart grid will play a key role in managing the demand able to match more volatile supply and optimizing the entire electricity system. Even though the system transformation is technically feasible, the successful transition cannot live without end users willing to transform their way of using energy. This thesis has explored possible roles of individual consumers in the smart grid implementation and in detail analyzed their influential factors. An online survey was conducted to capture preferences and behaviors of energy consumers during the time period of November 2013 to January 2014. The three roles of private electricity consumers - as consumers consuming electricity through appliances, as citizens holding attitudes towards smart grid applications, and as potential producers of electricity - are targeted. Constructs from the theory of planned behavior were tested by using a sample of 517 German citizens. Structural equation models of individual’s electricity saving behavior, their intention to participate in smart grid applications and investment behavior in solar panels were built. It was found that determinants of attitude, perceived norm, and perceived behavioral control together explain 32%-56% of the variance in the three behaviors. Attitude was found to be the most influential factor of individual electricity saving behavior, as well as of citizens’ intentions to participate in smart grid applications. For solar panel investment, it is perceived behavioral control that has the highest impact on the behavior. As the smart grid concept is not well understood by common people, education program and information campaigns are needed, in which social norm marketing is worth more attention, ascribable to the considerable impact caused by the diffusion of norms through social networks. To examine this social influence effect, empirically founded agent-based models for the above-mentioned three behaviors were created to estimate possible behavior changes brought by social norms at the aggregate level. Simulation results show that a reduction of total consumptions by 20% could be achieved in the virtual community due to behavior conformity induced by identified adopters. The potential impact of social norms on home generation and load shift are also promising.Item Open Access Analysis of the microclimatic and biodiversity-enhancing functions of a living wall prototype for more-than-human conviviality in cities(2023) Bornschlegl, Sebastian; Krause, Pia; Kropp, Cordula; Leistner, PhilipThis study analyzes the growing trend of urban green infrastructures, particularly green façade systems, in terms of their infrastructural relationships between nature and culture and their potential to act as bioclimatic layers mediating between the needs of flora, fauna and human habitation. An interdisciplinary approach is taken by combining the perspectives of social and engineering sciences to discuss the contribution of green façade systems for more-than-human conviviality in cities. Green infrastructures can support this endeavor by enabling functions that help to integrate the heterogeneity typical for semi-natural structures into urban ones, especially regarding microclimatic and biodiversity-enhancing functions. The theoretical distinction between “gray”, “green”, and “revolutionary” infrastructure is used to differentiate between conventional and posthumanist conceptualizations of urban naturecultures. The performance of the UNA TERRA living wall prototype as a green and revolutionary infrastructure is evaluated. The results show that the living wall has beneficial microclimatic effects and adds a heterogeneous habitat structure that supports biodiversity in the urban context. By adhering to “egalitarian humility” in design, the uncertainty and openness of more-than-human conviviality are acknowledged. The study finds that green infrastructures such as green façade systems can fulfill the criteria of revolutionary infrastructure if the contribution to local biodiversity and structural complexity is prioritized and the heterogeneous interrelations between human and non-human actors are taken into account.Item Open Access The best of both worlds? : An exploratory study on forms and effects of new qualitative-quantitative scenario methodologies(2016) Kosow, Hannah; Renn, Ortwin (Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c.)This study analyzes new forms of combined and integrated scenario methodologies, which are used to construct exploratory socio-environmental scenarios. It makes conceptual and empirical contributions to futures studies and to inter- and transdisciplinary environmental and sustainability research. For 15 years, scenario approaches for the construction of socio-environmental scenarios have been established, which combine qualitative scenario methods with numerical modeling and simulation. They have become state of the art by replacing scenario approaches based on modeling alone. Combined scenario approaches are used to explore the future of socio-environmental systems scientifically, and to supply society and policy makers with the best possible information on possible alternative future developments in climate, biodiversity, land use, water, resources and energy, etc. Combined scenarios are characterized by a deep methodological and epistemological hybridity, as they combine approaches and perspectives from different realms. This makes their appeal but also raises enormous challenges. At the same time, literature on combined scenarios has thus far provided little conceptual orientation for the comparison, design, assessment and implementation of different forms of combined approaches. In practice, the so-called Story and Simulation (SAS) approach is dominant, coupling intuitive scenarios with simulation, and postulating an iterative refinement of both components. Against this background, this study explores new avenues: Cross-impact balance analysis (CIB), a systematic-formalized yet qualitative form of systems analysis, is combined with numerical modeling and simulation (CIB&S). As yet, this approach was explored neither empirically nor conceptually in a systematic way. Still, in energy and climate research, the expectation is formulated that this approach might balance the difficulties of combined scenario approaches of the SAS type, especially with regard to traceability and consistency. This study asks whether and how CIB can be combined with numerical modeling and simulation to support inter- and transdisciplinary research teams in constructing qualitative and quantitative or integrated exploratory scenarios of socio-environmental systems. It focuses on forms of the combination of CIB&S; on effects on traceability and consistency as well as on further (unintended) effects of the use of CIB within such combinations; and finally on factors influencing these effects. Combined scenario approaches are conceptualized in this study as inter- and transdisciplinary methodologies. Each application is characterized by an individual social, technical and data-related organization. Based on a review of the literature on combined scenario approaches, central dimensions to characterize forms of the combination of qualitative and quantitative scenario methods are developed. In addition, a model of the typical phases of a CIB&S process is designed. To assess effects, working definitions of scenario traceability and scenario consistency are proposed and operationalized. This conceptual framework structures the empirical analysis of two exploratory case studies. The first case studies a method demonstration for the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA). In this case, CIB is used to analyze societal framework assumptions of environmental models and to construct plausible sets of assumptions until the year 2030. The second case studies a full pioneer application of CIB&S in the context of a megacity project for the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF). In the latter case, CIB is combined with a material flow simulator, to construct integrated scenarios on the possible water futures of Lima, Peru, until the year 2040. Both cases are qualitatively analyzed and interpreted, based on participant observation, interviews with process participants as well as process documents. The study shows that in different (ideal typical) forms of its combination with numerical modeling and simulation, CIB takes over different functions. The combined form, in turn, is mainly influenced by the position of both components within the process as well as by their degree of integration. CIB&S methodologies can successfully support scenario traceability, and contribute to both the internal consistency of the qualitative scenario component and the consistency between qualitative and quantitative scenario components. The stronger the degree of integration between CIB and simulation model, the stronger these effects. However, integration requires that the models underlying the scenarios, i.e. the conceptual CIB model as well as the numerical modeling and simulation, are made explicit and accessible, are compared with and, if applicable, adapted to each other. In addition, CIB&S approaches can create new checks and balances within combined scenario methodologies, when the definition of scenarios as well as the selection of scenario samples is assigned to the CIB and to the CIB participants. CIB&S approaches seem to be less suitable for the construction of explicitly normative or participatory scenarios. Instead, CIB&S approaches do support the participating experts in better analyzing, structuring and reflecting their knowledge, their assumptions and their ideas on possible future developments of socio-environmental systems. The external users of CIB&S-based scenarios can benefit from the improved accessibility of assumptions on uncertainty and complexity, which underlie the qualitative and quantitative or integrated scenarios, as these become criticizable in the first place. Overall, this study makes steps toward more conceptually grounded and more reflective research on the diversity of possible variants of combined and integrated scenario methodologies.Item Open Access Exploring smart grids with simulations in a mobile science exhibition(2015) Li, Huijie; Chabay, Ilan; Renn, Ortwin; Weber, Andreas; Mbungu, GraceImproving the publics' understanding of the energy system is a challenging task. Making citizens aware of how the complex energy system functions and how consumers of energy services can respond to a changing energy environment seems more difficult. In the context of the German energy transition, more active energy consumers are needed, not only in producing electricity on their own but also interacting with suppliers to make the energy system operate in a more efficient way through the development of a "smart grid". This article describes an approach taken with a public education perspective to engage citizens in thinking about the issues we are facing in moving toward a future with greater reliance on renewable energy. We introduced a mobile exhibition, including an interactive simulation game, which offered a perspective on the whole energy system. The goal was to stimulate questions and arouse citizens' interest in learning about the smart grid and help them to prepare for the transition to a smarter way of using energy.