Book dossier

The impact of electricity

by Tanja Winther

"How does everyday life change when electricity becomes available to a group of people for the first time? Why do some groups tend to embrace this icon of development while other groups actively fight against it? Based on ethnographic fieldwork at different points in time, this book examines the effects of electricity's arrival in a rural community in Zanzibar. The author provides a compelling account of the social implications in question: the rhythm of life speeds up; sexuality and marriage patterns are affected; and a range of social relations, those between generations and genders as well as those between human beings and spirits, become modified. These dynamics highlight the particularities of social life in the region. At the same time, the book invites readers to understand the ways that electricity is implicated in our everyday life."--BOOK JACKET.