When Homes Become Prisons: The Relational Spaces of Postsocialist Energy Poverty

Stefan Buzar
Additional contact information
Stefan Buzar: School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, England

Environment and Planning A, 2007, vol. 39, issue 8, 1908-1925

Abstract: In this paper I aim to develop a relational geographical interpretation of energy poverty in the postsocialist states of Eastern and Central Europe, through a field-based study of inadequately heated homes in the Macedonian cities of Skopje and Štip. According to the reviewed evidence, domestic energy deprivation simultaneously shapes, and is shaped by, the institutional relationships between policy actors at different levels of governance, and the day-to-day interactions between vulnerable households and the built environment. It is contingent on three sets of processes: the socioeconomic implications of energy reforms in postsocialism, the inadequate energy efficiency of the homes of energy-poor households, and the mismatch between housing needs and heating systems at the household level. As a result of such interdependencies, households may become ‘imprisoned’ in particular types of sociospatial arrangements that contribute to the emergence of poverty.

Date: 2007
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a38298 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envira:v:39:y:2007:i:8:p:1908-1925

DOI: 10.1068/a38298

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Environment and Planning A
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().