The Impact of Electricity : : Development, Desires and Dilemmas / / Tanja Winther.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Berghahn Books Complete eBook-Package 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Winther, Tanja,
• Place / Publishing House: New York ;, Oxford : : Berghahn Books, , [2008]; ©2008
• Year of Publication: 2008
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (274 p.)
• Other title: Frontmatter --; CONTENTS --; LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS --; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --; LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS --; Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION --; Chapter 2 POWERS OF THE PAST --; Chapter 3 THE RURAL ELECTRIFICATION PROJECT (RUREL) --; Chapter 4 ELECTRIFYING UROA --; Chapter 5 DISCOURSES OF DEVELOPMENT --; Chapter 6 THE ELECTRICITY COMPANY IN THE VILLAGE --; Chapter 7 UROA BY NIGHT --; Chapter 8 INTRODUCING OBJECTS OF DESIRE --; Chapter 9 REORGANISING INTERIOR SPACE --; Chapter 10 NEGOTIATING TASTES IN FOOD --; Chapter 11 ELECTRICITY MAKES A DIFFERENCE --; GLOSSARY OF SWAHILI TERMS --; BIBLIOGRAPHY --; INDEX
• Format: Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
• ISBN: 9780857450630; 9783110998283
• DOI: 10.1515/9780857450630
• Access: restricted access
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Tanja Winther.

How does everyday life change when electricity becomes available to a group of people for the first time? Why do some groups tend to embrace this icon of development while other groups actively fight against it? This book examines the effects of electricity’s arrival in an African, rural community. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Zanzibar at different points in time, the author provides a compelling account of the social implications in question. The rhythm of life changes and life is speeding up. Sexuality and marriage patterns are affected. And a range of social relations, e.g. between generations and genders, as well as relations between human beings and spirits, become modified. Despite men and women’s general appreciation of the new services electricity provides, new dilemmas emerge. By using electricity as a guide through the social landscape, the particularities of social and cultural life in this region emerge. Simultaneously, the book invites readers to understand the ways that electricity affects and becomes implicated in our everyday life.