Table Of ContentConsumption and Public Life
Series Editors: Frank Trentmann and Richard Wilk
Titles include :
Mark Bevir and Frank Trentmann (e ditors )
GOVERNANCE, CITIZENS AND CONSUMERS
Agency and Resistance in Contemporary Politics
Magnus Boström and Mikael Klintman
ECO-STANDARDS, PRODUCT LABELLING AND GREEN CONSUMERISM
Jacqueline Botterill
CONSUMER CULTURE AND PERSONAL FINANCE
Money Goes to Market
Daniel Thomas Cook (e ditor )
LIVED EXPERIENCES OF PUBLIC CONSUMPTION
Encounters with Value in Marketplaces on Five Continents
Nick Couldry, Sonia Livingstone and Tim Markham
MEDIA CONSUMPTION AND PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
Beyond the Presumption of Attention
Anne Cronin
ADVERTISING, COMMERCIAL SPACES AND THE URBAN
Jim Davies
THE EUROPEAN CONSUMER CITIZEN IN LAW AND POLICY
Jos Gamble
MULTINATIONAL RETAILERS AND CONSUMERS IN CHINA
Transferring Organizational Practices from the United Kingdom and Japan
Stephen Kline
GLOBESITY, FOOD MARKETING AND FAMILY LIFESTYLES
Eleftheria Lekakis
COFFEE ACTIVISM AND THE POLITICS OF FAIR TRADE AND ETHICAL
CONSUMPTION IN THE GLOBAL NORTH
Political Consumerism and Cultural Citizenship
Nick Osbaldiston
CULTURE OF THE SLOW
Social Deceleration in an Accelerated World
Amy E. Randall
THE SOVIET DREAM WORLD OF RETAIL TRADE AND CONSUMPTION
IN THE 1930s
Roberta Sassatelli
FITNESS CULTURE
Gyms and the Commercialisation of Discipline and Fun
Kate Soper, Martin Ryle and Lyn Thomas (e ditors )
THE POLITICS AND PLEASURES OF SHOPPING DIFFERENTLY
Better than Shopping
Kate Soper and Frank Trentmann (e ditors )
CITIZENSHIP AND CONSUMPTION
Yolande Strengers
SMART ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES IN EVERYDAY LIFE
Smart Utopia?
Lyn Thomas (e ditor )
RELIGION, CONSUMERISM AND SUSTAINABILITY
Paradise Lost?
Harold Wilhite
CONSUMPTION AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF EVERYDAY LIFE
A View from South India
Consumption and Public Life
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Smart Energy
Technologies in
Everyday Life
Smart Utopia?
Yolande S trengers
RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
© Yolande Strengers 2013
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-26704-7
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
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Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
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in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
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Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries
ISBN 978-1-349-44325-3 ISBN 978-1-137-26705-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137267054
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Contents
Preface vi
Acknowledgements viii
About the Author x
List of Abbreviations x i
1 Introducing the Smart Utopia 1
Part I
2 Imagining the Smart Utopia 1 7
3 Resource Man 3 4
4 Energy in Everyday Practice 53
Part II
5 Energy Feedback 73
6 Dynamic Pricing 94
7 Home Automation 1 16
8 Micro-generation 1 35
9 Reimagining the Smart Utopia: A Conclusion 155
Glossary 1 68
Notes 173
Bibliography 177
Index 199
v
Preface
This book is not a ‘typical’ analysis of smart energy technologies –
if indeed there is such a thing. It therefore seems helpful to clarify
from the outset the different fields of research this book intersects
with and the audiences it seeks to reach.
While I broadly identify myself as a social scientist, the analysis
presented here departs from the traditional ‘behavioural’ or ‘demand-
side’ spaces typically reserved for scholars in my field. Drawing on
theories of social practice and understandings of materiality from
Science and Technology Studies (STS), I seek to understand how
smart energy technologies, and energy itself, are participating in and
potentially transforming everyday practice.
As such, this book is deeply indebted to social practice theorists
and scholars, particularly those who have been instrumental in
reconceptualising the role of the consumer and consumption more
broadly. I draw on this body of theory to deliberately blur the bound-
aries between supply and demand, and to develop a material account
of how energy, and the technologies that deliver it to the home, come
to matter to practice in new and intriguing ways.
However, my hope is that this book will not only hold relevance
for my social science colleagues, but that it will speak to the engi-
neers and economists who are designing, building and making the
case for smart grids and meters. Towards this end this book draws,
as much as possible, on research from these disciplines to reconcep-
tualise and extend the possibilities for smart energy technologies in
everyday life.
Additionally, this book seeks to speak to a third audience; namely
those researchers and professionals involved in designing, testing
and innovating smart devices in homes. I am referring here to design
disciplines such as human–computer interaction and user-centred
design, where theories of social practice and STS understandings
of materiality are beginning to make in-roads. My brief encounters
with these disciplines have provided much inspiration and concep-
tual linkages that enhance the potential for smart energy technolo-
gies to reduce or shift energy demand.
vi
Preface vii
Finally, I want to make clear from the outset that this book does
not constitute a report on my empirical research; although when I
originally began this project I thought that it would. Indeed, one of
its aims is to step outside detailed case studies and represent the smart
energy project as a united and global utopian agenda. Nonetheless,
this book is informed by my PhD on smart metering demand manage-
ment programmes and subsequent research presented at Australian
and international industry and academic conferences, and published
in articles and book chapters.
More specifically, research projects conducted with my colleagues
for the Australian energy industry have allowed me to develop and
introduce the ideal smart energy consumer – Resource Man – to
groups of (primarily male) energy industry professionals, where he
has incited a laugh or two and encouraged critical reflection on what,
and who, the energy industry is trying to realise with the global
smart energy project.
Given the rise of smart in many domains, but most particularly in
the energy sector, this disciplinary encounter is timely and neces-
sary, and in keeping with the theme of this book, my utopian aspira-
tion is that it will continue into the future.
Acknowledgements
Writing a book is like Latour’s (1987a) depiction of a ‘black box’, the
inner workings of which are closed for discussion and assumed to
be a relatively straightforward input-output process. There are many
people to whom I wish to convey my deepest appreciation for helping
me open my black box, uncover its inner workings and, most impor-
tantly, close it again.
I thank those people who showed me the box and encouraged me
to get in it, particularly Anitra Nelson and Zoe Sofoulis. During my
time in the box, many people provided insights and critical reflec-
tion for which I am deeply grateful. In particular, I thank my RMIT
University colleagues Larissa Nicholls, Kim Humphrey and Ralph
Horne, as well as members of the Beyond Behaviour Change social
practice theory reading group. Brief discussions with Nortje Marres
and Elizabeth Shove also provided much inspiration.
Sincere thanks go to Gay Hawkins, who gave me the courage to
stay in the box, and whose sharp intellect and critical insights on
early and final drafts, combined with her ongoing encouragement
and generosity, enabled me to enrich this project.
I am also deeply indebted to my colleague, friend and collaborator
Cecily Maller, who helped me develop many of the ideas in this book
and introduced me to the Golem (Chapter 7). Cecily regularly went
beyond the call of collegial duty, providing calm words of encour-
agement and sharp insight during times when the box seemed like a
very dark and lonely place.
A Vice Chancellor’s research fellowship from RMIT University
provided me with the opportunity to spend time in the box. I am
very grateful to the university for this opportunity, as well as for
the flexible working conditions that have enabled me to work inten-
sively on this project.
The publishers at Palgrave Macmillan have assisted in unravel-
ling many of the inner workings of the box, and I am grateful for
their expertise and assistance, particularly commissioning editor
Andrew James and editorial assistant Naomi Robinson. I thank
viii
Acknowledgements ix
the special series editors, Richard Wilk and Frank Trentmann, who
provided important input during the project proposal stage. I also
wish to thank the anonymous reviewers of the proposal for their
feedback and Sarah Shrubb, who checked the text for language and
consistency.
This project has also benefited greatly from my activities outside
the box, particularly from my engagements with the Australian and
international energy industries over many years, including numerous
discussions with academics, policy makers and industry profes-
sionals who are grappling with many of the problems discussed in
this book. I am grateful to these people for many generous and frank
discussions, and hope they see this book as a positive contribution
to smart energy issues.
My sincere thanks go to the hundreds of households who have
been involved in my energy and water research over the past eight
years. While this book does not empirically report on this work or
these householders’ practices and experiences, it is greatly informed
by their everyday lives.
Final thanks to my very smart friends and family for indulging
me with many discussions on this topic. Special thanks go to my
husband, Ben Goodall, who patiently engaged with me and the box
during the whole project, and provided solid walls to bounce ideas
off. He also regularly reminded me that there is life outside the box,
and made sure I didn’t take the box too seriously.
Many thanks to all.
