Wilcox+Questioning+a+Text

=Memo: Questioning a Text= James Wilcox, Spring 2013

Nye, D. E. (2001). //Consuming power: A social history of American energies.// Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

post-class note: in class, my take on Nye’s titular play on the double meanings of “power” was that he pulled sort of a bait-and-switch. To clarify: Nye doesn’t do any explicit power theorizing or overtly relate energy systems to any particular literatures on power as such. He does, however, articulate how energy systems have historically served as modes of enlistment into various discursive regimes (without saying as much). So he’s attuned to power dynamics in relation to energy systems.


 * __What is the text about—empirically?__**

//What phenomenon is drawn out in the text? A social process; a cultural and political- economic shift; a cultural “infrastructure;” an emergent assemblage of science-culture- technology-economics?//

---The history of energy systems in the U.S. viewed as a social process and set of choices. Nye traces the often slow adoption of new energy systems even as “old” socio-technical regimes enjoyed prolonged popularity.

//Where is this phenomenon located – in a neighborhood, in a country, in “Western Culture,” in a globalizing economy?//

---The entire U.S., however Nye takes care to “locate” his narrative sites of significance to everyday life at home and at work

//What historical trajectory is the phenomenon situated within? What, in the chronology provided or implied, is emphasized -- the role of political or economic forces, the role of certain individuals or social groups? What does the chronology leave out or discount?//

---The history of industrialization in the U.S. from the 1700’s to 20th century, primarily from the perspective of the lived experience of daily life under shifting energy regimes. However, Nye attempts to move back and forth between institutions of multiple scales, social groups and individuals.

//What scale(s) are focused on -- nano (i.e. the level of language), micro, meso, macro? What empirical material is developed at each scale?//

---Macro scale framing [i.e. national statistics of energy use and technology and fuel diffusion] with selective nano [figures of language] micro [everyday accounts] and meso detail [manufacturer and market details]. In most cases Nye traces connections between scales.

//Who are the players in the text and what are their relations? Does the text trace how these relations have changed across time – because of new technologies, for example?//

---The main players are energy systems and the forms of life they have engendered. Choices Americans have made regarding the forms and characteristics of their energy and technological systems are central, though who exactly the decision makers are is not fully detailed.

//What is the temporal frame in which players play? In the wake of a particular policy, disaster or other significant “event?” In the general climate of the Reagan era, or of “after-the-Wall” globalization?//

---In general, “U.S. history,” specifically the industrialization and “technification” of work and leisure.

//What cultures and social structures are in play in the text?//

---Work and the workplace, Collective and individualistic leisure, Consumer society, Industrial society, Everyday life.

//What kinds of practices are described in the text? Are players shown to be embedded in structural contradictions or double-binds?//

---Practices of consumption, mobility, comfort; Industrial production practices; Technological “Innovation;” Double binds include developing high-energy systems based on logics of economic growth and technological progress/determinism (i.e. logics of short-term gain) despite lack of understanding/deliberation of future impact (i.e. logics of long-term planning/”seventh generation” thinking)

//How are science and technology implicated in the phenomenon described?//

---Technological obduracy results in future generations living with the energy decisions of the past; forms of life overdetermined by character of energy systems.

//What structural conditions– technological, legal and legislative, political, cultural – are highlighted, and how are they shown to have shaped the phenomenon described in this text?//

---Culture of individualism both shapes and is shaped by energy system decisions; lack of a tax on petroleum, coal, dirty energy in general has shaped our current built environment.

//How – at different scales, in different ways – is power shown to operate? Is there evidence of power operating through language, “discipline,” social hierarchies, bureaucratic function, economics, etc?//

---The aspect of the operation of power Nye focuses on is how power relations that exist at a point when energy system decisions are made, are rendered durable through physical infrastructure and subsequently “disciplines” human patterns of living.

//Does the text provide comparative or systems level perspectives? In other words, is the particular phenomenon described in this text situated in relation to similar phenomenon in other settings? Is this particular phenomena situated within global structures and processes?//

---Nye situates the “end” of his story about American energy consumption within the global context of energy use, with the U.S. as the global leader. The question is: how did this come to be?


 * __What is the text about – conceptually?__**

//Is the goal to verify, challenge or extend prior theoretical claims?//

---While the text is light on “theory,” as such, it builds on Hughes’ version of the Social Construction of Technology and extending its theoretical “reach” could be said to be a goal of Nye’s.

//What is the main conceptual argument or theoretical claim of the text? Is it performed, rendered explicit or both?//

---The main conceptual argument of the text is that once we make “decisions” about energy systems, they play a highly determinate role in shaping power relations and the character of everyday life. This claim is “performed” through historical narrative.

//What ancillary concepts are developed to articulate the conceptual argument? How is empirical material used to support or build the conceptual argument?//

---Nye also claims that the movement of energy systems through time is messy, with “old” technologies remaining widespread and viable for years after “new” ones, rather than a neat progression of “innovation” and rapid adoption. However, as newer, more “portable” high energy options are increasingly selected, certain forms of life become more durably embodied by infrastructure.

[More TK...]

//How robust is the main conceptual argument of the text? On what grounds could it be challenged?//



//How could the empirical material provided support conceptual arguments other than those built in the text?//


 * __Modes of inquiry?__**

//What theoretical edifice provides the (perhaps haunting – i.e. non-explicit) backdrop to the text?//

---Social construction of technology; large technical systems

//What assumptions appear to have shaped the inquiry? Does the author assume that individuals are rational actors, for example, or assume that the unconscious is a force to be dealt with? Does the author assume that the “goal” of society is (functional) stability? Does the author assume that what is most interesting occurs with regularity, or is she interested in the incidental and deviant?//

//What kinds of data (ethnographic, experimental, statistical, etc.) are used in the text, and how were they obtained?//

//If interviews were conducted, what kinds of questions were asked? What does the author seem to have learned from the interviews?//

//How was the data analyzed? If this is not explicit, what can be inferred? How are people, objects or ideas aggregated into groups or categories? What additional data would strengthen the text?//


 * __￼￼__**


 * __Structure and performance?__**

//What is in the introduction? Does the introduction turn around unanswered questions -- in other words, are we told how this text embodies a research project?//

//Where is theory in the text? Is the theoretical backdrop to the text explained, or assumed to be understood?//

//What is the structure of the discourse in the text? What binaries recur in the text, or are conspicuously avoided?//

//How is the historical trajectory delineated? Is there explicit chronological development? How is the temporal context provided or evoked in the text?//

//How does the text specify the cultures and social structures in play in the text?// //How are informant perspectives dealt with and integrated?//

//How does the text draw out the implications of science and technology? At what level of detail are scientific and technological practices described?//

//How does the text provide in-depth detail – hopefully without losing readers?//

//What is the layout of the text? How does it move, from first page to last? Does it ask for other ways of reading? Does the layout perform an argument?//

//What kinds of visuals are used, and to what effect? What kind of material and analysis are in the footnotes?//

//How is the criticism of the text performed? If through overt argumentation, who is the “opposition”?//

//How does the text situate itself? In other words, how is reflexivity addressed, or not?// //Circulation?//

//Who is the text written for? How are arguments and evidence in the text shaped to address particular audiences?//

//What all audiences can you imagine for the text, given its empirical and conceptual scope?//

//What new knowledge does this text put into circulation? What does this text have to say that otherwise is not obvious?//

//How generalizable is the main argument? How does this text lay the groundwork for further research?//

//What kind of “action” is suggested by the main argument of the text?//