Space of energy well‐being: Social housing tenants’ everyday experiences of fuel poverty

• Published in: Transactions - Institute of British Geographers (1965) 2019-12, Vol.44 (4), p.794-807
• Main Authors: Waitt, Gordon, Harada, Theresa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anxiety; Australia; capabilities; Embodiment; emotions; Energy; Energy consumption; energy justice; Ethnography; fuel poverty; Housing; Poverty; Public housing; sensory ethnography; Shame; Social anxiety; Tenants
• ISSN: 0020-2754; 1475-5661
• DOI: 10.1111/tran.12320

This paper contributes to geographical perspectives on energy justice by arguing for the concept of “spaces of energy well‐being.” We build on the concepts of capabilities, home, and emotional embodiment to offer an understanding of the spatiality of well‐being. The paper draws on empirical material from a study conducted with social housing tenants in Port Kembla, Australia, following recent energy price increases. Interviews illustrate that social housing tenants engaged in reducing domestic energy consumption occupy a paradoxical space of well‐being. We argue that energy bills are lived and felt daily through bodies as anxiety, given that participants experience social housing as a therapeutic and safe place that allows possibilities to refashion the self. We better understand the dynamics of pride and shame from limiting energy use. Our analysis suggests that essential to understanding the ways social housing tenants relate to uneven access to fuel is as an emotionally embodied home making and unmaking practice. The paper canvasses for space of energy well‐being. It asks, what are the implications for energy justice when everyday energy consumption is conceived as an emotionally embodied spatial practice? The objective of the paper is to open up debate about the importance of emotions for energy justice.