What is clean and comfortable? Challenging norms and conventions in everyday life toward sustainability

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article approaches reconfiguring everyday practices from the viewpoint of challenging the social norms and cultural conventions that drive unsustainable consumption patterns. The article discusses results from a living lab intervention, where 37 Finnish households challenged themselves to reduce indoor temperature and the laundry wash cycles in autumn 2018. We discuss what was considered as ‘clean’ and ‘comfortable’ by the participants, and what kinds of deliberation, experimentation and reflection occurred during the attempts to challenge these notions underlying daily performances of heating and washing laundry. The results show the highly social and cultural nature of private consumption patterns and the underlying expectations of ‘normality’, and thus problematise the individualised or technology-driven approaches of many mainstream attempts to guide households towards more sustainable consumption. Living lab approach can provide fruitful lessons on household routines, as well as on acceptable ways to intervene in ‘normal’ and culturally endorsed forms of consumption.