Past event
Energy Cafe: Why we should care about care
This cafe will be hosted by Silvia Pergetti.
The work it takes to operate and maintain energy systems is essential yet often missing from public and scholarly discourses on energy transitions. Such discourses often reduce sustainability to a property of energy sources or technologies, thereby discounting the hard work it takes to sustain energy systems in the long term. Building on insights from different strands of feminist theory, the talk will offer “care work” as a lens to conceptualise energy system operations and maintenance work. Informed by 15 months of fieldwork on an island of India's Sundarbans, the talk will make a case for rescuing this particular form of care work from invisibility — in academia, policy, and practice.
About the speaker
Silvia is a social scientist with a background in Anthropology, Development Studies, and Economics and 15 years of experience working on energy access. Her doctoral research project was aimed at evaluating the social impact of electrification in the Sundarbans region of India. Silvia's academic work draws inspiration from feminist critiques to Marxist theory to recast electrical repair and maintenance work as care work. Beyond academia, Silvia works as a Project and Impact Manager for the London-based company Inclusive Energy.
Please note, the speaker will be presenting online.