Gender and Energy and the Rationale for Resource Recovery and Reuse (RRR) for Energy

Abstract

A common conception of energy in the modern world is of a centralized system, linked to a grid with large energy production facilities fired by fossil fuels supplemented by renewable sources such as large-scale wind farms, hydrogeneration plants attached to dams or industrial solar installations (Sovacool 2016; Burger et al. 2011; Capellán-Pérez et al. 2017; Anderson 2016). These largescale systems are conceived of as neutral, disembodied technological models of progress because they supply energy indiscriminately to private residences, governments and industry. This easily leads to the illusion that power itself is a sociocultural neutral force that various types of people (men, women, youth, the elderly) simply use as their needs and wants dictate. By assuming a rhetoric of choice for individual users this hides how commercial energy systems impose certain requirements on their users such as the need to purchase and maintain devices like stoves, washing machines or heaters. In addition, it disguises how the cultural positions of particular groups differ, for example the impact of paying the electricity bill; individuals are