Dear Colleagues,
<br>
<br>
<br>Apologies for cross-posting!
<br>
<br>
<br>This email is the reminder of the deadline to submit abstracts of paper
<br>proposals to our panel ‘*P020: At the grid edge: homes, neighbourhoods and
<br>energy markets **(Energy Anthropology Network panel)*’ at the 16th EASA
<br>conference “New anthropological horizons in and beyond Europe” (EASA2020
<br>) in Lisbon,
<br>Portugal, 21-24 July 2020.
<br>
<br>
<br>We welcome empirical, theoretical or applied contributions and
<br>cross-disciplinary perspectives. We have received a very positive response
<br>to develop the selected papers towards a Special Issue for a leading
<br>energy-focused journal.
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>If you are interested in participating to the panel, please submit your
<br>abstract (*max. 250 words*) to the online form by *20 January 2020: *
<br>https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/easa2020/p/8652
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>*Short Abstract*
<br>
<br>Across Europe ‘the grid edge’, as instantiated in distributed,
<br>decentralised and off-grid energy systems, is emerging as a space for
<br>innovation and market experimentation. Our panel establishes it as a
<br>crucial site for anthropological inquiry and explores ways to both critique
<br>and intervene in it.
<br>
<br>
<br>*Long Abstract*
<br>
<br>Across Europe the grid edge has become a site of innovation,
<br>experimentation and legal exception. Extra-regulatory markets such as
<br>peer-to-peer energy trading are being trialled. Algorithms and control
<br>systems are being piloted to automate household appliances. Communities are
<br>becoming virtual power plants. The emerging distributed, decentralised, and
<br>off-grid energy systems profoundly challenge the universalist logic of
<br>national energy infrastructures and create an urgent role for
<br>anthropological knowledge.
<br>
<br>
<br>Anthropologists are entering these spaces to critique and to intervene.
<br>They question the assumptions supporting energy market construction and
<br>bring attention to non-market perspectives. They interrogate the inter- and
<br>intra-household dynamics that are created and destabilised as new flows of
<br>energy interact with existing gender, class and power relations. They
<br>examine the ethics, moralities, and values that are implicated and invoked.
<br>They are working in interdisciplinary ways, using interventionist
<br>approaches and are challenging the creation of binaries that pit automation
<br>against human control.
<br>
<br>
<br>In this panel, we discuss this as a new horizon for anthropological
<br>inquiry. One that is provoked by the changing ways energy is being
<br>negotiated within homes, circulated through neighbourhoods, and getting
<br>entangled in local markets. We invite papers that critique ‘low carbon
<br>transition’, provide ethnographic accounts of energy, or that offer
<br>methodological innovations for collaborative, experimental or
<br>interdisciplinary working. We are particularly interested in the insights
<br>from global south contexts and its cross-cultural comparison with the
<br>‘smart energy’ narrative in the global north. Overall, we invite broad
<br>critical engagement with the issues raised by doing anthropology at the
<br>grid edge.
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>We look forward to hearing from you,
<br>
<br>Abhigyan Singh & Charlotte Johnson
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