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Published: 2016

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How do some Americans come to adopt alternative technologies in residential dwelling? In order to consider this question, this dissertation explores six diverse cases of alternative technology adoption at the residential scale through a theoretical lens that focuses on the cultural embeddedness of choice, the ways that material systems operate as strategies of power (shaping social life, mental conceptions, and personal action), and how alternative material systems involve alternative forms of social organization and personal practice. Homeowners who have adopted solar electric technology in Colorado (n=48) and Wisconsin (n=48) were interviewed about their choice to adopt and their experience living with solar technology. In addition, through ethnographic fieldwork, this dissertation examines radically sustainable off-grid homes (called Earthships) and the alternative organization that builds them, two intentional communities (The Farm and Twin Oaks), and temporary alternative dwelling at Rainbow Gatherings. In this order, these cases represent increasing levels of disengagement from "the grid" - the material systems of electricity, water, waste, food, and transportation (as well as reproduction, education, work and social organization) - upon which normal residential dwelling depends. This research suggests that the choices and practices of these Americans, which involve living with alternative technology, are organized around a particular set of ethics, a unique ethic operating in each case. These orienting ethics shape how individuals organize their life preferences and actions, although they are not necessarily conscious positions. Thus, people dwell in resistance, although they are not consciously resisting, because their physical practices and bodily actions are organized around abstract ethical principles that contradict the ideals embedded within and perpetuated by mainstream dwelling technologies.

Download or read book Dwelling in Resistance written by and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do some Americans come to adopt alternative technologies in residential dwelling? In order to consider this question, this dissertation explores six diverse cases of alternative technology adoption at the residential scale through a theoretical lens that focuses on the cultural embeddedness of choice, the ways that material systems operate as strategies of power (shaping social life, mental conceptions, and personal action), and how alternative material systems involve alternative forms of social organization and personal practice. Homeowners who have adopted solar electric technology in Colorado (n=48) and Wisconsin (n=48) were interviewed about their choice to adopt and their experience living with solar technology. In addition, through ethnographic fieldwork, this dissertation examines radically sustainable off-grid homes (called Earthships) and the alternative organization that builds them, two intentional communities (The Farm and Twin Oaks), and temporary alternative dwelling at Rainbow Gatherings. In this order, these cases represent increasing levels of disengagement from "the grid" - the material systems of electricity, water, waste, food, and transportation (as well as reproduction, education, work and social organization) - upon which normal residential dwelling depends. This research suggests that the choices and practices of these Americans, which involve living with alternative technology, are organized around a particular set of ethics, a unique ethic operating in each case. These orienting ethics shape how individuals organize their life preferences and actions, although they are not necessarily conscious positions. Thus, people dwell in resistance, although they are not consciously resisting, because their physical practices and bodily actions are organized around abstract ethical principles that contradict the ideals embedded within and perpetuated by mainstream dwelling technologies.