An Ethnography of Household Energy Demand in the UK: Everyday Temporalities of Digital Media Usage PDF
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AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF HOUSEHOLD ENERGY DEMAND IN THE UK Everyday Temporalities of Digital Media Usage ROXANA MOROŞANU PALGRAVE STUDIES IN ANTHROPOLOGY OF SUSTAINABILITY Palgrave Studies in Anthropology of Sustainability Series Editors Marc Brightman University College London London , UK Jerome Lewis Department of Anthropology University College London London , UK Our series aims to bring together research on the social, behavioral and cultural dimensions of sustainability: on local and global understandings of the concept and on lived practices around the world. It will publish studies focusing on ways of living, acting and thinking which claim to favor the local and global ecological systems of which we are part, and on which we depend for survival. Political pressure surrounding sustainable resource governance shapes regimes of measurement and control and the devolution of risk and responsibility. Scientifi c cultures of sustainability are generated out of concern over the need for ‘green’ technologies and materials. Popular discourses of scarcity of resources or capital increasingly lead to challenges to cosmopolitan and egalitarian ideals (human rights, the welfare state), fed by fears over the sustainability of social systems and civilizations in the face of global change. Meanwhile an array of social and cultural transformations are occurring that seek to offer ways to live (and produce, consume…) more sustainably. Calculations of sustainability raise questions of value – a vexed political affair. An anthropological approach will help understand these emerging phenomena. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/14648 Roxana M oroşanu An Ethnography of Household Energy Demand in the UK Everyday Temporalities of Digital Media Usage Roxana Moroşanu Loughborough University Loughborough, UK Palgrave Studies in Anthropology of Sustainability ISBN 978-1-137-59340-5 ISBN 978-1-137-59341-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-59341-2 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016942647 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2 016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub- lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover illustration: © amana images inc. / Alamy Stock Photo Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Nature America Inc. New York To my parents, Dana and Cristi, and to my brother, Dragoş To Ste, Lee, and Brett A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have benefi ted from the comments and criticisms of participants in numerous conference sessions and workshops where parts of this work were presented, and from more extended feedback from the people who kindly read (parts of) the manuscript as it developed: Alyssa Grossman, Val Mitchell, Daniel Miller, Line Nyhagen, Karen O’Reilly, Sarah Pink, Marilyn Strathern, and Palgrave’s anonymous reader. I cannot thank them enough for their thoughtful and constructive reviews, and for their support. I am immensely grateful to the people who took part in my research, for letting me inside their homes and inside their lives, for trusting me, for talking to me, for giving me cups of tea, and for letting me learn from them. More than making my research possible, meeting them was a life- changing experience. I would like to thank all the members of the Low Effort Energy Demand Reduction (LEEDR) project, led by Richard Buswell, for welcoming me as part of the team and for working along with me for over four years. As part of the LEEDR project, the funding for my research came from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council of the UK (Grant no. EP/I000267/1). The members of staff in the Social Sciences Department at Loughborough University have been very welcoming and supporting, and we have had many stimulating conversations over the years. I am grateful to my friends Zina and Richard; Christine, Vic, Helena and Humphrey; Val and Darryl; and Bob and Angie, who made me a vii viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Morris dancer, took me with them all around the UK, and made me feel that I belong. During the process of transforming my doctoral dissertation into a monograph, Steven Firth provided every kind of encouragement, together with patience and care. Thank you, from all my heart. C ONTENTS 1 Introduction: The Time We Have–The Time We Make 1 2 How the Light Gets In: A Theoretical Framework for “Ordinary Agency” 19 3 Encountering Middleborough: Impressions, Methods, and Tacit Knowledge 4 5 4 Meeting the Families 73 5 Spontaneity 87 6 Anticipation and the Mother-Multiple 111 7 “Family Time” and Domestic Sociality: Forms of Togetherness and Independence with Digital Media 139 ix
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