POWERFUL RELATIONS: Kinship and Decentralized Electricity Production

Prof. Agnieszka Joniak-Lüthi

Dr. Sibylle Lustenberger

Urheberin: Annina Boogen

The ongoing debate on decarbonized energy systems has opened up fundamental questions of how the production and distribution of electricity can be organized more fairly and democratically. But although energy democracy and community renewable energy initiatives are broadly discussed, the experiences of communities that have managed their own electricity production for many decades are rarely considered as a proper resource and accordingly explored. The first goal of the present project is thus to analyze such experiences, so as to draw on them in designing empirically substantiated visions for alternative energy futures.

On a theoretical level, the project brings innovation to social science research on electricity infrastructures by focusing on the role of kinship and gender. The following research questions will be answered: 1) How are kinship and gender negotiated, given meaning, and changed in decisions and conflicts over the deployment, control, costs, and benefits of decentralized electricity generation? 2) To what extent and under what conditions do past, present, and future kinship relations support or hinder the maintenance of decentralized electricity production? 3) What forms of exploitation and dependency are generated in decentralized electricity production and what role do kinship and gender thereby play? Research will take place in rural Nicaragua and Switzerland and will combine participant observation with the method of "walking along," archival research, and the collection of family histories.