Consuming technologies - developing routines

Routines in daily life are crucial for consumption of energy and water in households and therefore, knowledge of how routines develop and change is extremely relevant from a sustainable consumption perspective. Routines emerge, develop and change in close relation with different kinds of everyday technologies. In this article, these processes are investigated from three different perspectives: an historical perspective of how new technologies have entered homes, a consumer perspective of how both houses and new technologies are purchased and finally, as the primary part of the article, a user perspective of how routines develop while these technologies are being used. In the conclusion these insights are discussed in relation to possible ways of influencing routines. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.