Energy and Society: Unravelling Governmentality of Energy Access

This chapter reviews the growing body of research that explores ‘the multiple dimensions and facets of energy poverty’—how the understanding and explanation of the phenomena are patterned by a range of relativistic approaches on account of isolated ‘epistemic’ considerations. It shows how researchers from a range of disciplinary backgrounds and physical contexts offer a critique on the phenomena laced with inherent contextual complexities. Socio-cultural footprints of the phenomena in India, however, tell us that the subcontinent is rife with its own unique narratives. The policies and programmes that aim towards emancipation of rural Indian populace from the drudgery of access to energy services are riddled with characters of unstable conceptual equilibrium along with non-linear trajectories of functional execution. The programmes have been for a very long time been in place, moving from complexity to chaos in terms of ever-increasing institutional complexity, and remoteness from formal structures of cutting-edge execution. The ultimate recipients have been tossing up and down through thresholds and tipping points of such policy burden. In order to bring symmetry and coherence in understanding the problem and the related issues, an experiential, immersive, empirical, and iterative approach was adopted to bring the problem closer to the solution. The study design has helped bring complexities to the forefront, for the policymaking arena to take into consideration the proposed solutions.