The poor woman’s energy: Low-modernist solar technologies and international development, 1878–1966

IF 1.7 1区 历史学 Q1 HISTORY Journal of Global History Pub Date : 2023-04-04 DOI:10.1017/S1740022823000062
Elizabeth Chatterjee
{"title":"The poor woman’s energy: Low-modernist solar technologies and international development, 1878–1966","authors":"Elizabeth Chatterjee","doi":"10.1017/S1740022823000062","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Solar energy often appears a resource without a history, perpetually novel and promising futuristic abundance. This overlooks a long episode of ‘low-modernist’ solar research in and for the global South. Focusing especially on India and detouring through Mexico, two important arenas for early solar experimentation, this article traces an alternative history of solar technologies as austere everyday fixes for developing countries. In parallel with the well-known postcolonial focus on high-modernist energy mega-projects, the narrow transnational community of solar experts retained a competing tendency to think small. At its heart lay a dualistic conception of the modern energy economy: flexible and resource-intensive grid electricity for urban centres, inferior off-grid devices to meet the minimal and static needs of the rural poor. This impoverished, feminized Third World projected user base resulted in persistent underinvestment and failed commercialization, helping to explain why solar technologies did not take off earlier. While solar experts emphasized the regional exceptionalism of the arid tropics, the teleological linkage between modernity and ever-rising energy abundance was rejuvenated from below as rural communities began to imagine the high-energy good life as a universal aspiration.","PeriodicalId":46192,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Global History","volume":"18 1","pages":"439 - 460"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7000,"publicationDate":"2023-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Global History","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S1740022823000062","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HISTORY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0

Abstract

Abstract Solar energy often appears a resource without a history, perpetually novel and promising futuristic abundance. This overlooks a long episode of ‘low-modernist’ solar research in and for the global South. Focusing especially on India and detouring through Mexico, two important arenas for early solar experimentation, this article traces an alternative history of solar technologies as austere everyday fixes for developing countries. In parallel with the well-known postcolonial focus on high-modernist energy mega-projects, the narrow transnational community of solar experts retained a competing tendency to think small. At its heart lay a dualistic conception of the modern energy economy: flexible and resource-intensive grid electricity for urban centres, inferior off-grid devices to meet the minimal and static needs of the rural poor. This impoverished, feminized Third World projected user base resulted in persistent underinvestment and failed commercialization, helping to explain why solar technologies did not take off earlier. While solar experts emphasized the regional exceptionalism of the arid tropics, the teleological linkage between modernity and ever-rising energy abundance was rejuvenated from below as rural communities began to imagine the high-energy good life as a universal aspiration.
查看原文
分享 分享
微信好友 朋友圈 QQ好友 复制链接
本刊更多论文
贫穷妇女的能源:低现代主义太阳能技术和国际发展,1878-1966
摘要太阳能往往是一种没有历史的资源,永远是新奇的,充满希望的未来资源。这忽略了全球南方长期以来的“低现代主义”太阳能研究。本文特别关注印度和墨西哥这两个早期太阳能实验的重要场所,追溯了太阳能技术作为发展中国家日常解决方案的替代历史。与众所周知的后殖民时代对高度现代主义能源大型项目的关注同时,太阳能专家的狭隘跨国群体保留了一种狭隘的竞争倾向。其核心是现代能源经济的二元概念:城市中心的灵活和资源密集型电网电力,满足农村穷人最低和静态需求的劣质离网设备。这种贫穷、女性化的第三世界预测用户群导致了持续的投资不足和商业化失败,这有助于解释为什么太阳能技术没有更早发展起来。虽然太阳能专家强调了干旱热带地区的区域例外论,但随着农村社区开始将高能量的美好生活想象为一种普遍的愿望,现代性与不断增加的能源丰度之间的目的论联系从下面重新焕发了活力。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 去求助
来源期刊
CiteScore
3.30
自引率
5.30%
发文量
28
期刊介绍: Journal of Global History addresses the main problems of global change over time, together with the diverse histories of globalization. It also examines counter-currents to globalization, including those that have structured other spatial units. The journal seeks to transcend the dichotomy between "the West and the rest", straddle traditional regional boundaries, relate material to cultural and political history, and overcome thematic fragmentation in historiography. The journal also acts as a forum for interdisciplinary conversations across a wide variety of social and natural sciences. Published for London School of Economics and Political Science
期刊最新文献
Do mountains kill states? Exploring the diversity of Southeast Asian highland communities A merger of equals: The political economy of the World Bank’s early contacts with China Freeing Chinese Men on the María Luz: Gender and the Latin American Coolie Trade Parsi capital and imperial infrastructure: Shipping and shopping in the port of Aden, 1840-1888 Islands in a sea of sand: The role of Tarim Basin polities in global trade during late antiquity
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
现在去查看 取消
×
提示
确定
0
微信
客服QQ
Book学术公众号 扫码关注我们
反馈
×
意见反馈
请填写您的意见或建议
请填写您的手机或邮箱
已复制链接
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
×
扫码分享
扫码分享
Book学术官方微信
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术
文献互助 智能选刊 最新文献 互助须知 联系我们:info@booksci.cn
Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。
Copyright © 2023 Book学术 All rights reserved.
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号 京ICP备2023020795号-1