Making power visible: Codifications, infrastructures, and representations of energy

Abstract

The concept and material manifestations of energy are often considered elusive and invisible per se. In most historical, sociological, and anthropological studies, the idea prevails that processes of energy conversion and transmission have become more and more invisible to humans since the industrial revolution, although worldwide energy consumption has increased massively since the 19th century. This conclusion is based on the idea of a directly proportional relationship between physical visibility and public awareness: as one goes down, so does the other. This special issue takes a closer look at this premise. We assume that energy is never invisible per se, but is a product of human action engaging with the material preconditions of energy carriers. Three categories of practice and objects that render energetic processes (in)visible are crucial to the analyses in this issue: codifications, infrastructures, and representations. Four case studies, grouped around these categories, investigate the question of the visibility of energy and provide answers from different historical and geographical contexts. The articles render more tangible and concrete the often-referenced, yet blurry idea of energy visibility/invisibility, and thus integrate energy visibility into the history of science, the history of technology, and energy studies.

Performative legitimation of waste-to-energy infrastructure: incineration politics in Guangzhou low-carbon transition

“…In particular, the concept of codification highlights that energy infrastructure is becoming more visible and calculable to citizens, typically due to advances in digital technology; for example, through more sophisticated interfaces, power translated into numbers is becoming more readable, and allowing more users to monitor and contest energy performance. (39) The second issue that the concept of performativity helps to clarify is the role of the "audience", or what Ding calls "public scrutiny". (40) China's urbanization is in fact a process of negotiation between a continuously fragmented authoritarianism and rapidly changing social demands.…”

“…(36) This involves ongoing negotiations and conflicts, including the tension between the performative role of regulatory regimes and the way the public understands, perceives and envisions the resilience and energy transition. (37) Using energy infrastructure as a case study, Frey and Schädler (38) discuss three factors in how infrastructure visibility affects public perceptions: through the material presence of energy landscapes, the representation of energy technologies and the codification of energy production. In particular, the concept of codification highlights that energy infrastructure is becoming more visible and calculable to citizens, typically due to advances in digital technology; for example, through more sophisticated interfaces, power translated into numbers is becoming more readable, and allowing more users to monitor and contest energy performance.…”

“…A major reason is still that government-led waste sorting is essentially a performative response to the anti-incineration activism, 112. Frey and Schädler (2021).…”

Visible winds: The production of new visibilities of wind energy inWest Germany, 1973–1991

“…26 Moreover, sources dating back to the mid-1950s show that, in expert circles, wind energy concepts of the interwar period were discussed in relation to the goal of saving "more valuable" fossil fuels. 27 Within agriculture, 22 See Frey & Schädler (2021). 23 Brighenti (2007, p. 325).…”

Chikungunya in Brazil, an Endless Epidemic

“…As Frey & Schädler (2021) note for about energy, although its consumption has increased exponentially since the 19th century, codifications, infrastructures, and representations act directly in the political and social production of the (in)visibility of physical energy and public consciousness of its use. 11Diniz (2017) demonstrated how the science of the Zika virus produced in Northeast Brazil and the very visibility of the disease had to deal with numerous obstacles to international recognition.…”