Towards an ethnography of electrification in rural India: Social relations and values in household energy exchanges

Singh, A.; Strating, Alex T.; Romero Herrera, N.A.; van Dijk, Hylke W.; Keyson, D.V.

doi:10.1016/j.erss.2017.06.031

Towards an ethnography of electrification in rural India

Title

Towards an ethnography of electrification in rural India: Social relations and values in household energy exchanges

Author

Singh, A. (TU Delft Design Conceptualization and Communication; NHL University of Applied Sciences)
Strating, Alex T. (Universiteit van Amsterdam)
Romero Herrera, N.A. (TU Delft Design Conceptualization and Communication)
van Dijk, Hylke W. (NHL University of Applied Sciences)
Keyson, D.V. (TU Delft Design Conceptualization and Communication)

Date

2017

Abstract

Many energy researchers and practitioners envision householders to have an active role in local energy distribution in emerging energy systems. In the energy literature, the dominant view of local energy distribution, grounded in the rational choice perspective, sees exchanges of energy between households as energy trading. The existing energy literature lacks conceptualization of social and personal exchange of energy between households that is mutually structured and negotiated. This article builds on the theoretical works of an economic anthropologist, Stephen Gudeman, to conceptually discuss such energy exchanges. This article reports from an ‘ethnographic intervention’ study conducted at an off-grid village in rural India for three months (1 February–30 April 2016). The ethnographic data analysis reveals how social relations and diverse cultural values influence on energy exchanges between households in the village. The article introduces ‘circle of mutual energy exchange’ as a conceptual, analytical and descriptive unit for understanding such energy exchanges. The article describes two co-existing and dialectically connected modes of energy exchanges: ‘mutual energy sharing’ and ‘mutual energy trading.’

Subject

Economic anthropology
Energy poverty
Energy sharing
India

To reference this document use:

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:5cca1f93-4a9d-4097-8ada-2e5f45971db5

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2017.06.031

ISSN

2214-6296

Source

Energy Research and Social Science, 30, 103-115

Part of collection

Institutional Repository