Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction. Powerlines : cultures of energy in the twenty-first century / Sarah Strauss, Stephanie Rupp, Thomas Love -- Theorizing energy and culture. The fossil interlude : Euro-American power and the return of the physiocrats / Alf Hornborg ; Energy consumption as cultural practice : implications for the theory and policy of sustainable energy use / Harold Wilhite ; Conversation 1. Theorizing energy and culture / Michael Degani [and others] -- Culture and energy : technology, meaning, cosmology. Considering energy : E = mc2 = (magic culture)2 / Stephanie Rupp ; Multinatural resources : ontologies of energy and the politics of inevitability in Alaska / Chelsea Chapman ; Siting, scale, and social capital : wind energy development in Wyoming / Sarah Strauss and Devon Reeser ; Cartel consciousness and horizontal integration in energy industry / Arthur Mason ; Conversation 2. Energy, technology, cosmology / Chelsea Chapman [and others] -- Electrification and transformation. Electrifying transitions : power and culture in rural Cajamarca, Peru / Thomas Love and Anna Garwood ; Space, time, and sociomaterial relationships : moral aspects of the arrival of electricity in rural Zanzibar / Tanja Winther ; Emergency power : time, ethics, and electricity in postsocialist Tanzania / Michael Degani ; Conversation 3. Electrification and transformation / Michael Degani [and others] -- Energy contested : culture and power. Eco-risk and the case of fracking / Elizabeth Cartwright ; Specters of syndromes and the everyday lives of Wyoming energy workers / Jessica Smith Rolston ; Energy affects : proximity and distance in the production of expert knowedge about biofuel sustainability / Derek Newberry ; Local power : harnessing NIMBYism for sustainable suburban energy production / Scott Vandehey ; Conversation 4. Energy contested : culture and power / Elizabeth Cartwright [and others] -- Energy contested : borders and boundaries. Oil's magic : contestation and materiality / Gisa Weszkalnys ; Energy politics on the "other" U.S.-Mexico border / Lisa Breglia ; Beyond the horizon : oil and gas along the Gulf of Mexico / Thomas McGuire and Diane Austin ; Conversation 5. Energy contested : borders and boundaries / Lisa Breglia [and others].

"This path-breaking volume explores cultures of energy, the underlying but under-appreciated dimensions of both crisis and innovation in resource use around the globe. Theoretical chapters situate pressing energy issues in larger conceptual frames, and ethnographic case studies reveal energy as it is imagined, used, and contested in a variety of cultural contexts. Contributors address issues including the connection between resource flows and social relationships in energy systems; cultural transformation and notions of progress and collapse; the blurring of technology and magic; social tensions that accompany energy contraction; and sociocultural changes required in affluent societies to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Each of five thematic sections concludes with an integrative and provocative conversation among the authors."--Publisher's website.

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