Paper short abstract:

Three ethnographies with Solar Home System users in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka show how new flows of energy assemble different social worlds.

Paper long abstract:

A growing interdisciplinary field of 'energy ethnographies' has begun shedding light on the kinds of social worlds which emerge through international efforts to provide access to energy. This paper uses a comparative analysis of 3 different ethnographies undertaken with users of off-grid solar home systems in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, to question what the introduction of new energies have set in motion in these different places. The paper focuses in particular on the manner in which new relationships are brought into being: relationships between technology, sunlight and belief systems, relationships between neighbors and relationships between consumers, solar installers and micro-finance institutions. Showing how these new relationships and social worlds are both ambiguous and contingent, the paper directs attention towards the capacity of flows of energy to assemble as opposed to power social worlds.