Paper short abstract:

Our 'interdisciplinary conversation' combines the critical questions we ask in the 'Intimate Energies' project with a consideration of how we creatively use different archives and different participatory methods to find the hidden histories of women making energy decisions in the home.

Paper long abstract:

Our paper will explore methods for recovering the histories of energy in the home, centering on two questions; How do we research women’s experience and emotion in the histories of energy in the home? And why is an interdisciplinary approach to both archives and methods vital in this work? Energy history to date has focused almost exclusively on technologies of extraction and production and the demands of economic growth. However most people experience energy in a much more intimate setting, in the routine domestic actions of cooking, cleaning, heating, and lighting, and their energy decisions in this context are guided by a range of factors that go beyond a simple desire for energy efficiency and ease of use. Our ‘Intimate Energies: Negotiating Power in Domestic Spaces’ project draws on historical sources available in archives, libraries and museums to reveal lived experiences of energy in the home at moments of energy transition to reinstate both the agency of women in negotiating energy transitions and the centrality of the household tasks to the energy economy. Women and home-makers played a vital role in the process of adopting and normalising new forms of energy, yet we barely see them in the existing literature. Our ‘interdisciplinary conversation’ will combine the critical questions we ask in our project with a consideration of how we creatively use different archives and different participatory methods to find the hidden histories of women making energy decisions in the home.