Abstract
This dissertation studies how Norwegian households prepare for and manage extensive electricity and ICT infrastructure breakdowns. Using practice theory, where everyday life is understood to be made up of socially shared practices, the dissertation shows that household preparedness is more than the oft recognized risk awareness and material preparedness resources. The importance of knowing how to perform everyday practices plays a significant role for the level of preparedness in households. By means of qualitative interviews with walk-alongs and visual methods, and a survey several competences are identified. These include previous experience with restricted access to infrastructure as well as infrastructure breakdowns, local geographical knowledge of infrastructure, weather and climate, activating social networks, and the ability to mobilise material resources. The concept of informal household preparedness is established to encompass these competences, demonstrating preparedness also should be understood as a performative resource concept. Informal household preparedness offers a more nuanced understanding of preparedness to research as well as risk management policy.
List of papers
Article 1 Heidenstrøm, Nina. "Informal household preparedness: methodological approaches to everyday practices." Journal of Risk Research 23.3 (2020): 379-397. The paper is removed from the thesis in DUO due to publisher restrictions. The published version is available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2019.1569106 |
Article 2 Heidenstrøm, Nina, and Linda Kvarnlöf. "Coping with blackouts: A practice theory approach to household preparedness." Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management 26.2 (2018): 272-282. The paper is included in the thesis in DUO, and also available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5973.12191 |
Article 3 Heidenstrøm, Nina, and Anders Rhiger Hansen. "Embodied competences in preparedness for blackouts: Mixed methods insights from rural and urban Norwegian households." Energy Research & Social Science 66 (2020): 101498. An author version is included in the thesis. The published version is available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2020.101498 |
Article 4 Heidenstrøm, Nina, and Harald Throne-Holst. "“Someone will take care of it”. Households' understanding of their responsibility to prepare for and cope with electricity and ICT infrastructure breakdowns." Energy Policy 144 (2020): 111676. An author version is included in the thesis. The published version is available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2020.111676 |