What Is Energy For? Social Practice and Energy Demand

Energy has an ambivalent status in social theory, variously figuring as a driver or an outcome of social and institutional change, or as something that is woven into the fabric of society itself. In this article the authors consider the underlying models on which different approaches depend. One common strategy is to view energy as a resource base, the management and organization of which depends on various intersecting systems: political, economic and technological. This is not the only route to take. The authors develop an alternative approach, viewing energy supply and energy demand as part of the ongoing reproduction of bundles and complexes of social practice. In articulating and comparing these two…

• RC
  Research Councils UK

  Award: EP/K011723/1
• EA
  Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

  Awards: EP/K011723/1, EP/K011723/1