The Social Life of Solar: An Interpretive Synthesis of Meaning-Making in Energy Transitions

Solar photovoltaic technologies are expanding across Sub-Saharan Africa through donor investment, business innovation, entrepreneurial activity, and supportive policy, yet household adoption is often explained mainly through technical, economic, and policy factors. This study examines the social life of solar photovoltaic technology by exploring how households interpret, negotiate, and incorporate it into everyday life. Guided by hermeneutic phenomenology and Social Norms Theory, the study employed Critical Interpretive Synthesis to consolidate 47 conceptually relevant studies from international and Zambia-relevant literature. The synthesis generated five interconnected interpretive constructs: solar photovoltaic technology as a publicly visible social artefact, participation through everyday energy practices, the social construction of normality, narratives of trust, risk, and reliability, and narrative circulation as social infrastructure. The findings show that solar photovoltaic technology acquires meaning not only through electricity generation but also through lived experience, visibility, peer interaction, trust, community narratives, and shared expectations. Visibility stimulates discussion, narratives shape trust and social norms, and everyday participation reproduces shared meanings around renewable energy. The study contributes an integrated interpretive framework that extends technical and economic explanations of adoption and offers conceptual guidance for future empirical research and socially responsive energy-transition policy in Zambia and comparable Sub-Saharan African contexts.