Dwelling in Resistance: Living with Alternative Technologies in America

248 Pages·2017·36.9 MB·English

by  Chelsea Schelly

Dwelling in Resistance
Nature, Society, and Culture
Scott Frickel, Series Editor
A sophisticated and wide-ranging sociological literature analyzing nature-
society-culture interactions has blossomed in recent decades. Th is book series
provides a platform for showcasing the best of that scholarship: carefully
craft ed empirical studies of socio-environmental change and the eff ects such
change has on ecosystems, social institutions, historical processes, and cultural
practices.
Th e series aims for topical and theoretical breadth. Anchored in socio-
logical analyses of the environment, Nature, Society, and Culture is home to
studies employing a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives
and investigating the pressing socio-environmental questions of our time—
from environmental inequality and risk, to the science and politics of climate
change and serial disaster, to the environmental causes and consequences of
urbanization and war making, and beyond.
Available titles in the Nature, Society, and Culture series:
Diane C. Bates, Superstorm Sandy: Th e Inevitable Destruction and Reconstruction
of the Jersey Shore
Cody Ferguson, Th is Is Our Land: Grassroots Environmentalism in the Late
Twentieth Century
Stefano B. Longo, Rebecca Clausen, and Brett Clark, Th e Tragedy of the
Commodity: Oceans, Fisheries, and Aquaculture
Stephanie A. Malin, Th e Price of Nuclear Power: Uranium Communities and
Environmental Justice
Chelsea Schelly, Dwelling in Resistance: Living with Alternative Technologies in
America
Diane Sicotte, From Workshop to Waste Magnet: Environmental Inequality in
the Philadelphia Region
Sainath Suryanarayanan and Daniel Lee Kleinman, Vanishing Bees: Science,
Politics, and Honeybee Health
Dwelling in Resistance
Living with Alternative
Technologies in America
CHELSEA SCHELLY
Rutgers University Press
New Brunswick, Camden, and Newark, New Jersey, and London
978–0-8135–8650–2
978–0-8135–8651–9
978–0-8135–8652–6
978–0-8135–8653–3
Cataloging-in-Publication data is available from the Library of Congress.
A British Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the British Library.
Copyright © 2017 by Chelsea Schelly
All rights reserved
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copyright law.
∞ Th e paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National
Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI
Z39.48–1992.
www.rutgersuniversitypress.org
Manufactured in the United States of America
For Avery, always

Contents
1 What Does It Mean to Dwell in Resistance? 1
2 What “Normal” Dwelling Looks Like: Th e History
of Home Technologies 18
3 Custodians of the Earth, Witnesses to Transition:
Th e Story of Th e Farm 41
4 Th e Abundance of the Commons: Twin Oaks and the
Plenitude Ethic 68
5 Individualism and Symbiosis: Th e Dance at Dancing Rabbit 95
6 Self-Suffi ciency as Social Justice: Th e Case of
Earthship Biotecture 121
7 Dwelling in Resistance 149
Appendix: Refl ections on Method 167
Acknowledgments 173
Notes 175
Bibliography 211
Index 225
vii

Dwelling in Resistance