The Energy Reader

by Laura Nader (Editor)

The Energy Reader presents a series of readings that examine the energy problem from an anthropological perspective and look at energy holistically, including social and cultural components and long term implications for global and social environmental change.  

Genres: Nonfiction

576 pages, Paperback

First published May 25, 2010

About the author

Nader's current work focuses on how central dogmas are made and how they work in law, energy science, and anthropology. Harmony, Ideology_Injustice and Control in a Mountain Zapotec Village (1990) and The Life of the Law: Anthropological Projects (2002) indicate a wide range of interests in law that has moved from village sites into national and international arenas. Energy Choices in a Democratic Society (1980) is the initial work that has continued on in the area of energy and resources culminating in Naked Science_Anthropological Inquiry into Boundaries, Power, and Knowledge (1996). This work reflects a theoretical perspective that crosses disciplinary boundaries. Essays in Controlling Processees (1994, 1996, 2002) is ongoing work that attempts to synthesize contemporary work on power and control. Nader is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1995 the Law and Society Association awarded her the Kalven Prize for distinguished research on law and society.



http://anthropology.berkeley.edu/peop...

Reviews

[Dylan Oak hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I give this book 5 stars. Not only because I took Dr. Nader's energy class at UC Berkeley while reading the text, but because the text was so well put together and had such scope and vision to it. This is a great book for holistic thinkers and people in the sustainability movement. This collection of articles (with a few interviews) has everything to do with energy, western cultural patterns, the decline of the fossil-fuel age, and the rising tide of the solar age. The book especially highlights "energy in action", there are well over a dozen small sections throughout the book, each pertaining to people who are actually getting out there, making businesses, connecting people, rethinking the way we get and use energy. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that the world would come around even quicker and less painfully if everyone were to read this book (or at least glean the knowledge and vision out of it).

Out of all my texts from college, this easily made it to my top 3. It could even be #1, I know it will be on my shelf forever.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Asks some important questions, is very one sided, and kind of all over the place. The main articles are mostly depressing, but the energy in action snippets are uplifting. A good sampling I suppose.