Emerging sociotechnical imaginaries – How the smart home is legitimized in visions from industry, users in homes and policymakers in Germany

Abstract

Debates about the digitally enhanced and “smart” home include different visions associated with implementing digital technologies in private homes. This paper analyzes the “visions” put forward in Germany from smart home industry actors, users in smart homes and policymakers and the processes through which legitimacy for the smart home is created. When it comes to digital energy futures, the multiple ways in which visions legitimize the uptake of emerging technologies belong to the driving forces in institutionally stabilizing sociotechnical imaginaries. We identify legitimation strategies that can be found within those visions. Our analyzes are empirically based on a qualitative content analysis of smart home marketing websites from the ten most common smart home providers in Germany and on policy documents from German ministries, as well as on qualitative interviews with German smart home users. We discovered four different legitimation strategies that contribute to institutionally stabilizing emerging German smart home imaginaries: cognitive/emotional alignment, solutionism, coupling with normative goals and expert/scientific legitimation. Our findings reveal how visions that, in their formation phase, are shared only between small actor collectives gain traction through several legitimation strategies.