“Because You Got to Have Heat”: The Networked Assemblage of Energy Poverty in Eastern North Carolina

Current discussions of energy policy seldom acknowledge the problem of energy poverty, a situation in which a household cannot afford to adequately heat or cool the home. In this article, we examine the concept of energy poverty and describe some of its contours in a rural part of North Carolina. Energy poverty, we suggest, is best viewed as a geographical assemblage of networked materialities and socioeconomic relations. To illustrate this approach, we focus on the geographical patterns of three key determinants of energy poverty in eastern North Carolina: the socioeconomic characteristics of rural households, the networked infrastructures of energy provision, and the material conditions of the home. Throughout, we highlight the lived effects of energy poverty, drawing on transcripts from interviews conducted with recipients of weatherization assistance in the region. The challenges of the energy poor, we suggest, deserve greater attention in public policy and as part of a broader understanding of welfare and care.

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