Routinised Causality: How Domesticated Technology Shapes the Everyday Energy Practices of Prosumers
 
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AGH University of Krakow
 
 
Submission date: 2025-12-13
 
 
Final revision date: 2026-01-23
 
 
Acceptance date: 2026-02-19
 
 
Publication date: 2026-06-29
 
 
Polish Sociological Review 2026;234(2):269-284
 
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ABSTRACT
This article examines how domestic energy technologies, particularly photovoltaic (PV) systems and monitoring applications, reshape everyday practices in prosumer households. Drawing on Actor-Network Theory and social practice theory, we conceptualize these changes through the lens of domestication and introduce the notion of ‘routinised agency’ to describe how human and non-human actors co-produce habitual routines. Based on thirty-nine in-depth interviews with Polish prosumers, we show that PV systems are not neutral tools but socio-technical actors embedded in material infrastructures, competences, and meanings. Our findings reveal three key dynamics: (1) the incorporation of PV into household rhythms through monitoring apps and scheduling of energy-intensive tasks; (2) the reproduction of gendered divisions of labor, with men acting as remote ‘production managers’ and women adapting domestic routines; and (3) the role of digital competence as cultural capital, shaping class-based differences in technology use. We argue that prosumption represents a sociotechnical transformation that intersects technical, economic, and cultural spheres, challenging assumptions of smart home neutrality. This study contributes to debates on smart domesticity by linking energy transition to everyday practices, gender relations, and inequalities in digital expertise.
FUNDING
The text was written as part of the project “Making is Connecting”financed by the National Science Centre Poland, project number 2022/45/HS2/01554, and under a University grant “Initiative of Excellence—Research University”(IDUB) project
eISSN:2657-4276
ISSN:1231-1413
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