Conceptualising Processes of User Learning in Domestication Theory

What, why, and how?

Abstract

The idea that users learn about new technologies in order to make them work within their daily lives is an important concept in domestication theory. It offers a way to conceptualise technology-user co-construction across household- and societal-level trajectories, and can be applied to identify policy relevant insights. However, while cognitive, symbolic and practical dimensions of learning in domestication are well established, processes of how users learn remain under-conceptualised. To address this gap, this paper employs process analysis to examine how users learned about a novel lower-carbon home heating technology (smart hybrid heat pumps). Starting from the principle that learning emerges from interactions between elements of technologies and of users’ daily lives, it abductively develops a framework of four learning processes: receiving, experiencing, interpreting and responding. It illustrates how these four interlinked processes give rise to cognitive, symbolic and practical learning, then discusses their role in domestication trajectories and implications for policy.