Wilcox+Delineating+a+Project

=Delineating A Project= James Wilcox, Spring 2013

1**. The discursive regimes and imaginaries that shape residential energy use.** Since so many practices and processes are implicated in energy use, this requires a wide focus. I would need to zoom in on a few. This is also closely related the topics covered in Elizabeth Shove’s //Comfort, Cleanliness, and Convenience//, and I would need to take care that my questions and insights are differentiated from hers. I think the inclusion of imaginaries and will prove to be helpful and interesting, as will shining a light on policy intervention as site of discursive practice.

This is obviously related to my number 1, but I feel that it deserves its own focus. Again, it’s very close to Shove’s domain, and she’s said quite a lot, but I feel as though more and different articulations of how the body is implicated in and central to energy expenditure issues is warranted. Another subheading under this “about” is linking STS perspectives on the politics of technology up with embodiment and social practice theories.
 * 2. The embodied sociotechnical practices that drive residential energy use.**


 * Bonus: research question clarification alert: How do discursive regimes and sociotechnical imaginaries shape the embodied, sociotechnical practices that drive residential energy use?***

3. **Institutional interventions into everyday practices (that result in residential energy use).** This topic is one area in which the project can be “about” more than “energy,” for example, the relationships between governance institutions and individuals in the field of everyday life. In characterizing the experiences of participants on all sides of energy use interventions, I want to comment on the nature of strategic interventions into everyday practices by collective forces, particularly partisan ones, acting on behalf of nonhumans and humans alike.