Energy transitions in the age of complex systems: understanding current energy transitions through an historical enquiry on instrumentality. Nicola Labanca

Posted on July 19, 2016

Seminar held: Wednesday 13th July 2016 The seminar will propose discussing current energy transitions in the light of the insights offered by an historical enquiry on instrumentality. The proposed approach allows interpreting the present age of complex systems as the result of some fundamental transformations concerning how the conception of human artefacts commonly known as instruments…

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A sociology of household energy infrastructures: the case of the stove replacement program in rural Chile. Tomas Ariztia

Posted on June 23, 2016

This presentation offers some early findings of a research project focused on following a large scale environmental policy oriented on replacing old, often handmade, firewood stove for new high-end kerosene and “pellet” stoves in Southern Chile. The main aim of this policy is to reduce air pollution. The presentation focuses on discussing some preliminary empirical findings as well as…

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Creating pleasance: new needs for the smart home. Yolande Strengers

Posted on June 10, 2016

This talk draws on an international content analysis of online and magazine articles exploring the ideas embedded in visions for the 21st Century smart home. In particular, I analyse smart home advocates' pursuit of  'pleasance' - an ambient and electrically-enabled aesthetic experience which brings 'comfort, romance and peace of mind' into the home (Lutron 2015). Through a series of…

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Is being incompetent and ignorant all the bad? Insights from the transition to energy saving light bulbs in Denmark. Mikkel Bille

Posted on May 26, 2016

Seminar held: Tuesday 24th May 2016 When new technologies are introduced there is a learning process involved where people need to adjust or invent practices, meanings and knowledge. For instance, as this presentation discusses, the new energy saving light bulb has forced us to think in new ways about light: From the black-boxed Watt to the white-boxed lumen, kelvin, ra. But such…

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The temporal dynamics of being an international visiting scholar

Posted on May 16, 2016

Yolande Strengers & Mikkel Bille Academia is increasingly concerned with international connections and collaboration. While the benefits of such endeavours are increasingly discussed (Glover et al. 2016), we rarely acknowledge their effects. In this short piece of writing we are interested in the ways in which one globalising move — the appointment of the ‘visiting academic’ —…

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