Badeværelseskultur - en barriere for bæredygtig udvikling?

6XPPDU\
This project takes up the challenge of trying to understand why it is so
difficult for radical, sustainable technologies to manifest themselves in
society today, especially since sustainability has become an important issue.
A starting point for creating such understanding can be to examine
the systemization that has gradually developed in society, and which
must be fundamentally changed in order for innovative solutions to be
accepted. Specifically, the project focuses on the influence that existing
rationales and standards in society have on the potential for more radical
technological solutions. The project studies a specific case: the recycling
of human urine and faeces, which comprises a radical break with the existing
water-flushing system.
The present method of handling human urine and faeces, which has
dominantly been the water-flushing system, usually perceives of and
treats these substances as waste products. Since this system became established
in the 1900s, this perception has not changed in any fundamental
way, although it has been acknowledged that the water-flushing system
has problematic environmental consequences and several attempts
have been made to develop the system in order to minimize pollution. In
recent decades, there has been a growing demand for a more radical
change than just technological optimization in the way of handling these
substances. Such radical change implies implementation of an alternative
toilet system that makes use of such alternative solutions as composting
toilets or urine-separating toilets, which separate these substances at the
source and re-use them as nutrients. Such radical change is not easy,
however, and the current rate of implementation of alternative toilets indicates
that it is difficult to replace water-flushing toilets. One of the
main reasons for this is that existing standards and rationales in society
in general set certain conditions for potential paths of development, and
these obstruct the implementation of alternative toilets.
The aim of the project is to analyse how societal development influences
the potential for alternative toilets, with emphasis on the significance of
the existing water-flushing system and the actual tendencies observed in
relation to Danish bathrooms.
To understand this resistance to change, this project examines the dynamics
behind the societal development in both a macro- and microoriented
perspective. This approach is inspired by the ’Multi-level Perspective’,
which perceives innovation as an outcome of multiple driving
forces. In the macro-oriented perspective, focus is on the development of
the water-flushing system, which is a stable system with deep roots in
society, and how this development has contributed to shaping certain
conditions and limitations in relation to the potential for alternative toilets.
This aspect of the project deals with the way in which historical developments
can carry with them paths of development that are difficult
to change. In the micro-oriented perspective, focus is on the actual development
of bathrooms in Denmark. This focus has been chosen, because
there has recently been a tendency to design and use bathrooms in
new ways. This aspect of the project deals with rationales as dynamic en-
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