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“In the morning I just need a long, hot shower” - Outline of a sociology of the (re)distribution of energy sensibilities
Panel: Presentations
Author:
Thomas Berker, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Abstract
In this short paper Elizabeth Shove’s (1997) discussion of two sociologies of energy is taken as inspiration for the proposal of a third ‘sociology of energy’: the study of how energy sensibilities (in the sense of esthesia: responsiveness and awareness) are distributed unevenly. Energy is approached as a polyphonic concept, i.e. as containing many meanings of which no one is logically privileged. Given this polyphony, the assumption of a boundary between visibility and non-visibility of energy, which divides Shove’s two sociologies, loses importance. Instead unevenly distributed ways of sensing (and making sense of) energy become the object of study. Drawing on Jacques Rancière’s (2004, 2006) writings, this approach is used to discuss contemporary distributions of energy’s sensibilities in domestic settings and how they have been redistributed during the previous two decades.
Paper
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