An Ethnography of Household Energy Demand in the UK: Everyday Temporalities of Digital Media Usage

210 Pages·2016·2.41 MB·English

by  Roxana Moroşanu (auth.)

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
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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