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Accepted Paper:
Hopes & fears carried by a gas bottle: discussing the (dis)enchantment of clean cooking transitions in Kenya
Serena Saligari
(University of Liverpool)
This paper discusses the potential of LPG gas bottles for clean cooking transitions in Kenya. It argues that gas bottles should not be accounted as technical objects only, rather as entities imbued with social values. Gas bottles deliver promises, but they also impose new challenges to the users.
Paper long abstract:
In the last decade, the adoption of LPG gas bottles has been promoted by the Kenyan government as the ‘magic bullet’ for the transition to clean cooking. Several policies and infrastructural investments have encouraged LPG use to transit away from polluting biomass fuels and kerosene. Nowadays 25% of the population cooks with LPG compared to 3% in 2006. LPG is considered a ‘clean fuel’ because it burns efficiently emitting low levels of black carbon. Gas bottles are easy to transport, affordable, and intuitive to use. In Kenya, adopting LPG is a turning point for users: gas bottles promise better health, freedom from drudgery, and generally safer living conditions. Also, they epitomise users’ ability to upgrade their socio-economic status and to embrace ’modern’ life. This paper is based on 6-months ethnographic fieldwork I conducted in 2021 for my PhD in the informal settlement of Langas. It unpacks the complex set of hopes and expectations placed on the ownership of gas bottles, focusing on how those extend beyond their ability to fulfil the technical purpose of delivering clean energy.
All that glitters is not gold, however: the adoption of gas bottles also poses new socio-cultural and technical challenges – e.g. division between users/non-users and new forms of marginalisation, as well as an ever-expanding dichotomy between energy practices in rural and urban settings. The second section will focus on the disenchantment of clean cooking transitions to shed light on some often-neglected socio-cultural components that may hinder their success.