ABSTRACT
So far, this book has addressed questions relating to the policy background of energy poverty, and the broader socio-economic reasons for the observed disparities between Macedonia and the Czech Republic. But institutional legacies and cultures per se are insufficient to explain the markedly different size and structure of the demographic groups affected by energy poverty. As a result, the principal aim of this chapter is to delve into the ‘grain’ of social relations, by examining the everyday practices and articulations of energy consumption at the level of the household. I focus on the micro-scale experiences of domestic energy deprivation in Macedonia and the Czech Republic, by connecting the policy mechanisms found in the previous three chapters (strategic selectivity, institutional trap, energy efficiency gap) with the everyday lives of the households affected by energy poverty. Special attention is paid to the interaction of fixed and mobile infrastructures in the residential energy sector, and the manner which the lived experiences of energy poverty are shaped by domestic occupancy and energy efficiency patterns.
