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Marius Korsnes

Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Interdiciplinary Studies of Culture, Researcher

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I work as a post doctoral researcher connected to the The Research Centre on Zero Emission Neighbourhoods in Smart Cities (ZEN) and the Centre for Sustainable Energy Studies (CenSES). I focus on the role of "prosumers" and new forms of energy use in low-energy buildings and neighborhoods. I compare "prosumers" with respect to energy use and household practices in urban dwellings and neighborhoods in China, Norway and Germany.

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Alberica Domitilla Bozzi

Pieter van Wesemael

Eindhoven University of Technology

Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn

Gert Wijlhuizen

Université Gustave Eiffel

Paweł Pistelok

AmirKabir University Of Technology

Phil Justice Flores

SDG4BIZ Project

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Papers by Marius Korsnes

Littering the City or Freedom of Mobility? The Case of Electric Scooters

Springer eBooks, Dec 14, 2022

Implementing Mission-oriented Experiments: Recommendations on Epistemic Inclusion for City Stakeholders Working in Climate Change Initiatives

Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy

Policy institutions have been increasingly investing in demonstrators, pilots, living labs, testb... more Policy institutions have been increasingly investing in demonstrators, pilots, living labs, testbeds, and so forth, that focus on novel experimental approaches to dealing with climate change. In particular, cities have been advocated as ideal innovation sites for such experiments. However, we argue that insufficient attention has been given to accommodating the different forms of knowledge included and produced through the design, implementation, and evaluation of these city experiments (i.e., epistemic inclusion). This article presents 10 recommendations for city policy officers and other stakeholders involved in delivering mission-oriented programmes of work to achieve epistemic inclusion in their attempts to drive innovation in cities. In illustrating our arguments, we engage with the EU Horizon Europe Mission of Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities as one example of such a programme. 100 European Cities have been selected as front-runners in this Mission. The Mission will support th...

Paradoxes of Norway’s energy transition: controversies and justice

Climate Policy

Ambition and ambiguity: Expectations and imaginaries developing offshore wind in China

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2016

This paper investigates how future-orientation generates action in China's offshore wind indu... more This paper investigates how future-orientation generates action in China's offshore wind industry. We might expect that, with an authoritarian government, China would be able to push through policies with ease. Using the sociology of expectations and sociotechnical imaginaries, this paper shows how the future is an important resource for not only coordinating government and industry actors but also calibrating and negotiating expectations of what can be achieved. On the one hand, sociotechnical imaginaries – as exemplified by government development targets – appear to spur action; on the other hand, local expectations modify the intended development targets. The paper describes a strategic waiting game in which the government is obscure about intentions and in which the industry, wanting a piece of a promising cake, is eager to get a head start. This paper finds that ambitiousness about the future, but ambiguity in implementation, is a strategy successfully employed by the government to ensure change. The paper shows how state intervention is productively managed so that it neither stifles nor exclusively drives offshore wind industry development in China.

Increasing the speed, scope, and level of decarbonization for meeting the Net-zero 2050 challenge Implications for sustainability transitions research

Nordsjøen som plattform for grønn omstilling

27, 2021

Understanding Communities in China and Europe: Similarities, Differences and Consequences for Socially Integrative Cities

One large challenge we face in achieving integrative and sustainable cities in China and Europe i... more One large challenge we face in achieving integrative and sustainable cities in China and Europe is to understand what is making people "stick together" and care for their local communities. Only when we understand local communities better will it be possible to make improvements. In this paper we start by reviewing the way in which communities and community building have been understood in Europe and China respectively. The paper then goes on to assess the similarities and differences between China and Europe with respect to the role of communities and provides an overview of potential barriers and opportunities for achieving socially integrative cities through local community building and public engagement.

Community Building through Public Engagement: Variety in Europe and China

Towards Socially Integrative Cities, 2016

Urban Living Labs as Instruments of Open Innovation: Examples of SinoEuropean Cooperation

Towards Socially Integrative Cities, 2021

Conflicted transitions: Exploring the actors, tactics, and outcomes of social opposition against energy infrastructure

Global Environmental Change, 2022

Given the growing frequency, severity, and salience of social mobilization and community action o... more Given the growing frequency, severity, and salience of social mobilization and community action on energy and climate issues, in this study we systematically explore the configurations of types of infrastructure, actors, tactics, and outcomes of recent opposition to energy transitions across seven carbon-intensive regions in Asia, Europe, and North America. Based on both a literature review and an original dataset of 130 case studies spanning the past decade, we track opposition to a wide range of energy infrastructure in these regions, including low-carbon options such as renewable energy and nuclear power; provide network analyses of the actors and coalitions involved in such events; and develop a typology and frequency analysis of tactics (such as litigation or protest), and outcomes (such as remuneration, policy change, concessions, or labor protections). We show that the politics of energy transitions in carbon-intensive regions varies significantly from country to country and across types of energy, and we discuss how the configurations of infrastructure, actors, tactics, and outcomes can be explained by differences in national institutions and their responses to global or supranational pressures. By bringing both a sociotechnical and comparative perspective to the global analysis of social movements and energy transitions, we suggest how goals of energy transition are refracted through national and subnational institutions and through local mobilizations both in support of and opposed to those transitions.

Three scenarios Striving for a Norwegian Low Emission Society post 2050

Three scenarios Striving for a Norwegian Low Emission Society post 2050

Homemaking in a Living Laboratory: Interpretations of a Zero Emission Housing Solution

Home Cultures, 2019

Abstract A zero emission building (ZEB), as defined by the Research Centre on Zero Emission Build... more Abstract A zero emission building (ZEB), as defined by the Research Centre on Zero Emission Buildings (ZEB Centre) in Norway, is one solution towards achieving the aims set by the Paris Climate Agreement on dramatically reducing carbon emissions. The structure for a zero emission building includes a variety of technical strategies such as passive and active energy design and renewable energy sources, and is currently under development and testing. Many of the future ZEBs will become homes, implying a change in the use and understanding by those living there. Based on the response from six residential groups who lived in ZEB Living Lab, this paper studies how zero-emission housing technology impacts the use and understanding of it as a home. The paper presents two different interpretations, one that felt at home, and one that did not, and discusses the reasons and implications on the wider use and introduction of this kind of housing technology in Norway.

The Sustainability Challenge: How Multi-Cultural and Interdisciplinary Groups of Master Students Achieve Sustainable Architecture in Shanghai

The sustainability concept addresses complex anthropogenic challenges by soliciting approaches th... more The sustainability concept addresses complex anthropogenic challenges by soliciting approaches that are problem-driven and solution-oriented. What a ‘problem’ and ‘solution’ is, however, is not always clear, and must be negotiated on behalf of a multitude of interests and concerns. How does such a negotiation happen in an interdisciplinary and multi-cultural environment, and what does this negotiation process mean for the sustainable solutions that are attempted agreed on and achieved? In this paper we study the experiences made in an interdisciplinary and multi-cultural summer school on ‘Sustainable Energy in Cities’ held in Shanghai in July 2016 in order to say something about how sustainability was negotiated across different disciplines and cultural background. The summer school included 35 master’s students from eleven countries with mechanical and civil engineering, social science, industrial ecology, renewable energy and architectural disciplinary backgrounds. The students we...

The Growth of a Green Industry : Wind Turbines and Innovation in China

All the helpful souls that I met and that helped me out in Beijing deserve recognition. This goes... more All the helpful souls that I met and that helped me out in Beijing deserve recognition. This goes in particular for An Min and Gao Si at the Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL) Beijing, Gørild Heggelund (UNDP), Xiaomei Tan (WRI), helpful people at Innovation Norway and the Norwegian Embassy, Christian Ellermann (Ecofys), Jost Wübbeke, Jorrit Gossens, Ruohong Cao, my interpreter Hope, and all my classmates and friends in 五道口 and Beijing. The same appreciation is directed at all those who answered my e-mails and my many questions regarding China and the renewable energy industry at the outset of this study. Special gratitude goes to my two supervisors. Hal Wilhite at the Centre for Development and the Environment (SUM): your support, useful feedback, great knowledge and positive attitude have been irreplaceable and a source of great inspiration. Jens Hanson at the Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture (TIK): your input has been most decisive to the outcome of the logic and argument in this thesis. Without your help I would have been left in a theoretical limbo. I have been highly privileged to enjoy writing my thesis in the best research milieu thinkable: the Centre for Development and the Environment. To everyone there, and especially to my classmates and great reading room buddies: thank you. I also express my appreciation for receiving the MILEN scholarship which has lead to many interesting new encounters and experiences. Lastly, I wish to thank my family and friends who have remained positive, supportive and inquisitive during this process. You made the stormy days feel like a breeze.

Between craft and regulations: experiences with the construction of two “super insulated” buildings in Norway

Nordic Journal of Science and Technology Studies, 2017

Building regulations set standards that aim to reduce energy use and CO2 emissions, and thereby t... more Building regulations set standards that aim to reduce energy use and CO2 emissions, and thereby to support the development of a more sustainable building stock. The Norwegian government uses building regulations to influence the construction industry, and they directly affect how craftspeople from the industry apply their skills. Regulations are converging with understandings about sustainability, energy use, building materials, and comfort requirements that are circulating in society. In this paper, we investigate the negotiations between the meaning and value associated with the requirements for the material structure and the craftsperson’s role. Two houses in Central Norway are the starting point, where qualitative methods, primarily semi-structured interviews and observation, are used to gain insight into the craftsperson’s view of the Norwegian building regulations. The two houses represent two different building standards. A Passive House in Åfjord Municipality, completed in 2...

Diversifying diversity: Inclusive engagement, intersectionality, and gender identity in a European Social Sciences and Humanities Energy research project

Energy Research & Social Science, 2020

Reanalysis of occupant experiment in ZEB Living Lab

IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 2019

In 2015-2016, a six-month long experiment was carried out in the ZEB Living Lab, one of the first... more In 2015-2016, a six-month long experiment was carried out in the ZEB Living Lab, one of the first houses in Norway planned to reach net zero emission throughout its lifetime. By means of qualitative experiments, social scientists evaluated how six groups of occupants impacted the zero emission building, and how the zero emission building impacted its occupants in different ways. Data were collected through direct observation, diaries and interviews before, during and after the stay. In this paper, we take a closer look at the sensor data from the detailed monitoring system, generated during each group’s 25-day long residing’s. We find that despite the experiment being a controlled environment with many shared household characteristics, occupancy is determined by diverse factors, and the users’ preferences and attitudes influence energy consumption. All major household appliances were the same, but the time of use, frequency, duration and type of use differed. The study contributes t...

Domestication, acceptance and zero emission ambitions: Insights from a mixed method, experimental research design in a Norwegian Living Lab

Energy Research & Social Science, 2018

The Trondheim Living Lab is a detached single-family zero emission building (ZEB) that is planned... more The Trondheim Living Lab is a detached single-family zero emission building (ZEB) that is planned to reach a zero-emission balance over the course of its estimated 60-year lifetime. This is achieved by a broad variety of technical strategies such as passive and active energy design and efficient installations, as well as calculations of embodied emissions. In qualitative experiments conducted between September 2015 and April 2016 six different groups lived in the house for 25 days each. Based on direct observation (mainly through sensors registering temperature, humidity, CO 2 levels and energy use), participant observation and interviews before, during and after the stay, the paper analyses the unfolding domestication of the building along three dimensions; practical, symbolic and cognitive. The paper provides an account of which expected or unexpected occupant actions matter in which way for the zero emission ambitions of the building. Moreover, by studying the way in which the six groups within the three different categories student, family and elderly experienced living in this demonstration building this paper contributes a more detailed understanding of the overall acceptance of a ZEB in Norway.

Fragmentation, Centralisation and Policy Learning: An Example from China's Wind Industry

Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, 2014

This paper seeks to understand what government mechanisms have allowed China's wind industry ... more This paper seeks to understand what government mechanisms have allowed China's wind industry to grow as fast as it has over the past ten years. Instead of formal rules and regulations, this paper focuses on specific sets of institutional conditions that have been crucial in the process of high-speed implementation of wind energy in China. Specifically, fragmentation and centralisation, together with policy experimentation and policy learning, have been fundamental for policy flexibility and institutional adaptability. The paper illustrates that there are benefits and disadvantages to these characteristics, and that inherent qualities of China's governing system that lead to rapid growth overlap with those that lead to challenges in terms of quality and long-term performance.

Littering the City or Freedom of Mobility? The Case of Electric Scooters

Springer eBooks, Dec 14, 2022

Implementing Mission-oriented Experiments: Recommendations on Epistemic Inclusion for City Stakeholders Working in Climate Change Initiatives

Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy

Policy institutions have been increasingly investing in demonstrators, pilots, living labs, testb... more Policy institutions have been increasingly investing in demonstrators, pilots, living labs, testbeds, and so forth, that focus on novel experimental approaches to dealing with climate change. In particular, cities have been advocated as ideal innovation sites for such experiments. However, we argue that insufficient attention has been given to accommodating the different forms of knowledge included and produced through the design, implementation, and evaluation of these city experiments (i.e., epistemic inclusion). This article presents 10 recommendations for city policy officers and other stakeholders involved in delivering mission-oriented programmes of work to achieve epistemic inclusion in their attempts to drive innovation in cities. In illustrating our arguments, we engage with the EU Horizon Europe Mission of Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities as one example of such a programme. 100 European Cities have been selected as front-runners in this Mission. The Mission will support th...

Paradoxes of Norway’s energy transition: controversies and justice

Climate Policy

Ambition and ambiguity: Expectations and imaginaries developing offshore wind in China

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2016

This paper investigates how future-orientation generates action in China's offshore wind indu... more This paper investigates how future-orientation generates action in China's offshore wind industry. We might expect that, with an authoritarian government, China would be able to push through policies with ease. Using the sociology of expectations and sociotechnical imaginaries, this paper shows how the future is an important resource for not only coordinating government and industry actors but also calibrating and negotiating expectations of what can be achieved. On the one hand, sociotechnical imaginaries – as exemplified by government development targets – appear to spur action; on the other hand, local expectations modify the intended development targets. The paper describes a strategic waiting game in which the government is obscure about intentions and in which the industry, wanting a piece of a promising cake, is eager to get a head start. This paper finds that ambitiousness about the future, but ambiguity in implementation, is a strategy successfully employed by the government to ensure change. The paper shows how state intervention is productively managed so that it neither stifles nor exclusively drives offshore wind industry development in China.

Increasing the speed, scope, and level of decarbonization for meeting the Net-zero 2050 challenge Implications for sustainability transitions research

Nordsjøen som plattform for grønn omstilling

27, 2021

Understanding Communities in China and Europe: Similarities, Differences and Consequences for Socially Integrative Cities

One large challenge we face in achieving integrative and sustainable cities in China and Europe i... more One large challenge we face in achieving integrative and sustainable cities in China and Europe is to understand what is making people "stick together" and care for their local communities. Only when we understand local communities better will it be possible to make improvements. In this paper we start by reviewing the way in which communities and community building have been understood in Europe and China respectively. The paper then goes on to assess the similarities and differences between China and Europe with respect to the role of communities and provides an overview of potential barriers and opportunities for achieving socially integrative cities through local community building and public engagement.

Community Building through Public Engagement: Variety in Europe and China

Towards Socially Integrative Cities, 2016

Urban Living Labs as Instruments of Open Innovation: Examples of SinoEuropean Cooperation

Towards Socially Integrative Cities, 2021

Conflicted transitions: Exploring the actors, tactics, and outcomes of social opposition against energy infrastructure

Global Environmental Change, 2022

Given the growing frequency, severity, and salience of social mobilization and community action o... more Given the growing frequency, severity, and salience of social mobilization and community action on energy and climate issues, in this study we systematically explore the configurations of types of infrastructure, actors, tactics, and outcomes of recent opposition to energy transitions across seven carbon-intensive regions in Asia, Europe, and North America. Based on both a literature review and an original dataset of 130 case studies spanning the past decade, we track opposition to a wide range of energy infrastructure in these regions, including low-carbon options such as renewable energy and nuclear power; provide network analyses of the actors and coalitions involved in such events; and develop a typology and frequency analysis of tactics (such as litigation or protest), and outcomes (such as remuneration, policy change, concessions, or labor protections). We show that the politics of energy transitions in carbon-intensive regions varies significantly from country to country and across types of energy, and we discuss how the configurations of infrastructure, actors, tactics, and outcomes can be explained by differences in national institutions and their responses to global or supranational pressures. By bringing both a sociotechnical and comparative perspective to the global analysis of social movements and energy transitions, we suggest how goals of energy transition are refracted through national and subnational institutions and through local mobilizations both in support of and opposed to those transitions.

Three scenarios Striving for a Norwegian Low Emission Society post 2050

Three scenarios Striving for a Norwegian Low Emission Society post 2050

Homemaking in a Living Laboratory: Interpretations of a Zero Emission Housing Solution

Home Cultures, 2019

Abstract A zero emission building (ZEB), as defined by the Research Centre on Zero Emission Build... more Abstract A zero emission building (ZEB), as defined by the Research Centre on Zero Emission Buildings (ZEB Centre) in Norway, is one solution towards achieving the aims set by the Paris Climate Agreement on dramatically reducing carbon emissions. The structure for a zero emission building includes a variety of technical strategies such as passive and active energy design and renewable energy sources, and is currently under development and testing. Many of the future ZEBs will become homes, implying a change in the use and understanding by those living there. Based on the response from six residential groups who lived in ZEB Living Lab, this paper studies how zero-emission housing technology impacts the use and understanding of it as a home. The paper presents two different interpretations, one that felt at home, and one that did not, and discusses the reasons and implications on the wider use and introduction of this kind of housing technology in Norway.

The Sustainability Challenge: How Multi-Cultural and Interdisciplinary Groups of Master Students Achieve Sustainable Architecture in Shanghai

The sustainability concept addresses complex anthropogenic challenges by soliciting approaches th... more The sustainability concept addresses complex anthropogenic challenges by soliciting approaches that are problem-driven and solution-oriented. What a ‘problem’ and ‘solution’ is, however, is not always clear, and must be negotiated on behalf of a multitude of interests and concerns. How does such a negotiation happen in an interdisciplinary and multi-cultural environment, and what does this negotiation process mean for the sustainable solutions that are attempted agreed on and achieved? In this paper we study the experiences made in an interdisciplinary and multi-cultural summer school on ‘Sustainable Energy in Cities’ held in Shanghai in July 2016 in order to say something about how sustainability was negotiated across different disciplines and cultural background. The summer school included 35 master’s students from eleven countries with mechanical and civil engineering, social science, industrial ecology, renewable energy and architectural disciplinary backgrounds. The students we...

The Growth of a Green Industry : Wind Turbines and Innovation in China

All the helpful souls that I met and that helped me out in Beijing deserve recognition. This goes... more All the helpful souls that I met and that helped me out in Beijing deserve recognition. This goes in particular for An Min and Gao Si at the Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL) Beijing, Gørild Heggelund (UNDP), Xiaomei Tan (WRI), helpful people at Innovation Norway and the Norwegian Embassy, Christian Ellermann (Ecofys), Jost Wübbeke, Jorrit Gossens, Ruohong Cao, my interpreter Hope, and all my classmates and friends in 五道口 and Beijing. The same appreciation is directed at all those who answered my e-mails and my many questions regarding China and the renewable energy industry at the outset of this study. Special gratitude goes to my two supervisors. Hal Wilhite at the Centre for Development and the Environment (SUM): your support, useful feedback, great knowledge and positive attitude have been irreplaceable and a source of great inspiration. Jens Hanson at the Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture (TIK): your input has been most decisive to the outcome of the logic and argument in this thesis. Without your help I would have been left in a theoretical limbo. I have been highly privileged to enjoy writing my thesis in the best research milieu thinkable: the Centre for Development and the Environment. To everyone there, and especially to my classmates and great reading room buddies: thank you. I also express my appreciation for receiving the MILEN scholarship which has lead to many interesting new encounters and experiences. Lastly, I wish to thank my family and friends who have remained positive, supportive and inquisitive during this process. You made the stormy days feel like a breeze.

Between craft and regulations: experiences with the construction of two “super insulated” buildings in Norway

Nordic Journal of Science and Technology Studies, 2017

Building regulations set standards that aim to reduce energy use and CO2 emissions, and thereby t... more Building regulations set standards that aim to reduce energy use and CO2 emissions, and thereby to support the development of a more sustainable building stock. The Norwegian government uses building regulations to influence the construction industry, and they directly affect how craftspeople from the industry apply their skills. Regulations are converging with understandings about sustainability, energy use, building materials, and comfort requirements that are circulating in society. In this paper, we investigate the negotiations between the meaning and value associated with the requirements for the material structure and the craftsperson’s role. Two houses in Central Norway are the starting point, where qualitative methods, primarily semi-structured interviews and observation, are used to gain insight into the craftsperson’s view of the Norwegian building regulations. The two houses represent two different building standards. A Passive House in Åfjord Municipality, completed in 2...

Diversifying diversity: Inclusive engagement, intersectionality, and gender identity in a European Social Sciences and Humanities Energy research project

Energy Research & Social Science, 2020

Reanalysis of occupant experiment in ZEB Living Lab

IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 2019

In 2015-2016, a six-month long experiment was carried out in the ZEB Living Lab, one of the first... more In 2015-2016, a six-month long experiment was carried out in the ZEB Living Lab, one of the first houses in Norway planned to reach net zero emission throughout its lifetime. By means of qualitative experiments, social scientists evaluated how six groups of occupants impacted the zero emission building, and how the zero emission building impacted its occupants in different ways. Data were collected through direct observation, diaries and interviews before, during and after the stay. In this paper, we take a closer look at the sensor data from the detailed monitoring system, generated during each group’s 25-day long residing’s. We find that despite the experiment being a controlled environment with many shared household characteristics, occupancy is determined by diverse factors, and the users’ preferences and attitudes influence energy consumption. All major household appliances were the same, but the time of use, frequency, duration and type of use differed. The study contributes t...

Domestication, acceptance and zero emission ambitions: Insights from a mixed method, experimental research design in a Norwegian Living Lab

Energy Research & Social Science, 2018

The Trondheim Living Lab is a detached single-family zero emission building (ZEB) that is planned... more The Trondheim Living Lab is a detached single-family zero emission building (ZEB) that is planned to reach a zero-emission balance over the course of its estimated 60-year lifetime. This is achieved by a broad variety of technical strategies such as passive and active energy design and efficient installations, as well as calculations of embodied emissions. In qualitative experiments conducted between September 2015 and April 2016 six different groups lived in the house for 25 days each. Based on direct observation (mainly through sensors registering temperature, humidity, CO 2 levels and energy use), participant observation and interviews before, during and after the stay, the paper analyses the unfolding domestication of the building along three dimensions; practical, symbolic and cognitive. The paper provides an account of which expected or unexpected occupant actions matter in which way for the zero emission ambitions of the building. Moreover, by studying the way in which the six groups within the three different categories student, family and elderly experienced living in this demonstration building this paper contributes a more detailed understanding of the overall acceptance of a ZEB in Norway.

Fragmentation, Centralisation and Policy Learning: An Example from China's Wind Industry

Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, 2014

This paper seeks to understand what government mechanisms have allowed China's wind industry ... more This paper seeks to understand what government mechanisms have allowed China's wind industry to grow as fast as it has over the past ten years. Instead of formal rules and regulations, this paper focuses on specific sets of institutional conditions that have been crucial in the process of high-speed implementation of wind energy in China. Specifically, fragmentation and centralisation, together with policy experimentation and policy learning, have been fundamental for policy flexibility and institutional adaptability. The paper illustrates that there are benefits and disadvantages to these characteristics, and that inherent qualities of China's governing system that lead to rapid growth overlap with those that lead to challenges in terms of quality and long-term performance.