This book investigates energy access through the lens of everyday energy practices in the Gambian community of Kartong.

Reframing Energy Access: Insights from The Gambia explores past, current and potential future modes of energy production and consumption to examine concepts such as energy leapfrogging and energy sufficiency. It argues that developments must be rooted in situated understanding of energy consumption to ensure sustainable and equitable access to modern energy services. Schiffer provides a uniquely long-term and holistic perspective into changing energy practices on the ground and the economic, political, environmental, technical and cultural factors that shape it.

Translating insights of energy in The Gambian context into broader themes and recommendations, this book will be of great interest to policy makers, researchers and practitioners who work in the fields of energy access, energy policy, renewable energy transitions, as well as African and sustainable development in general.

"Energy for all is a noble ambition - so why do many projects fail? A common factor is too much focus on the tech - energy production - and too little on the ways people actually use energy in their daily lives. Whether it’s transplanting rice, cooking food, or traveling on local transport, diverse social arrangements are often in place that achieve impressive results using modest means. This social dimension to energy access is often-overlooked, but Anne Schiffer’s first-hand reporting brings it to life. As her fine-grained stories accumulate, the need to integrate energy use with transport, agriculture, and other forms of land-use, becomes inescapable. An understanding of the everyday yields further insights into enabling conditions for energy access: finance; volunteers with the right skills; time. These important lessons transcend both industrialised and developing world contexts." -- John Thackara, author of How To Thrive In The Next Economy and In The Bubble

Anne Schiffer is Senior Lecturer in the Leeds School of Arts, Leeds Beckett University, UK.