A socio-technical approach to domestic energy demand: Case study of middle class housing in Pakistan

Current housing and energy policies, with their largely techno-economic focus fail to address the ways of living and patterns of demand that emerge from the specific socio-material and cultural context and determine how the need for energy arises and evolves. Taking the case of middle-class housing in Lahore, Pakistan, this lecture will look at how a socio-technical approach to domestic energy demand can help to: 1) explain growing
household electricity-use as a consequence of the co-evolution of household practices and material arrangements (how we got to this point) and 2) explore potential low-energy interventions in design and use (where do we go from here?).

Speaker's bio:
Dr Rihab Khalid is a Research Fellow at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge University. She is an interdisciplinary researcher in sustainable energy consumption and demand management, focusing on socio-technical approaches to societal transitions. In particular, she is interested in the intersections of gender, energy infrastructure and space use in Pakistan and more broadly in the Global South.

For further info please see: https://www.arct.cam.ac.uk/research/research-seminars/the-martin-centre-research-seminar-series