Homely Atmospheres and Lighting Technologies in Denmark: Living with Light

by Mikkel Bille

Overview

Using case studies, such as the use of candlelight and energy saving lightbulbs in Denmark, this book unravels light’s place at the heart of social life. In contrast to common perception of light as a technical and aesthetic phenomenon, Mikkel Bille argues that there is a cultural and social logic to lighting practices. By empirically investigating the social role of lighting in people's everyday lives, Mikkel Bille reveals how and why people visually shape their homes. Moving beyond the impact of its use, Bille also comments on the politics of lighting to examine how ideas of pollution and home act as barriers for technological fixes to curb energy demand. Attitudes to these issues are reflective of how human perceptions and practices are central to the efforts to cope with climate change. This ethnographic study is a must-read for students of anthropology, cultural studies, human geography, sociology and design.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350057180
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	01/24/2019
Series:	Home
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Mikkel Bille is Associate Professor at Roskilde University, Denmark.

Table of Contents

List of figures vi

Acknowledgements vii

Series preface: why home? Rosie Cox Victor Buchli viii

1 Introduction: living with light 1

2 The sociality of lighting 25

3 In the vagueness of hygge 45

4 Atmospheric realities 61

5 Atmospheric communities 77

6 Qualifying bright lighting 103

7 Ignorance and illumination 119

8 Reflections of sensory politics 137

Notes 157

Bibliography 161

Index 179

Editorial Reviews

Profoundly illuminating. This book sets a new standard for work in the anthropology of
atmospheres and sensory studies.
DAVID HOWES, Concordia University, Canada

An engaging, authoritative and highly original study of light, atmosphere and affect. It is at
the same time an impassioned and robust argument for the field Mikkel Bille has been so
central in founding: the socio-cultural understanding of how people construct and perform
their social lives not just in light but with light.
DON SLATER, London School of Economics, University of London, UK

Mikkel Bille's theoretical and ethnographic investigation makes a significant advance
towards offering a new vision of the personal, societal and environmental implications of
how people live with light.
SARAH PINK, RMIT University, Australia

From the Publisher