Home in time of climate change
ENERGY LIFE STORIES ENERGY LIFE STORIES ENERGY LIFE STORIES ENERGY LIFE STORIES ENERGY LIFE STORIES ENERGY LIFE STORIES ENERGY LIFE STORIES ENERGY LIFE STORIES ENERGY LIFE STORIES
ENERGY LIFE STORIES
When you hear the word energy, what comes to mind? Electricity, fuel, power, rising prices? These Energy Life Stories invite you to begin somewhere else: everyday life. Based on narrative interviews conducted in the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Greece, these fourteen short audio fragments have been interpreted and voiced by Elias Krischke, preserving participants’ anonymity while remaining true to their experiences. From staying warm at home to life in refugee camps, from caring for loved ones to caring for places, the stories reveal that energy is far more than something we consume. It is something we live with, shape and share. As we listened across these stories, three recurring perspectives emerged. Together, they invite us to rethink energy not simply as a resource or commodity, but as a social relation woven through homes, communities and everyday practices.
Energy as
personal
relation
Homes need more than electricity and heating, they also need our own energy. Repairing, maintaining, adapting and making a place feel like home all requires time, effort and care. Some homes support everyday life; others constantly demand something back. These stories invite us to rethink the energy–housing nexus by asking not only how much energy a home consumes, but also how much energy it asks of the people who live there.
When community is missing
Living within my energy
The work we forgot
Energy as
social
relation
Energy does not only move through cables and pipes. It also moves through relationships. These stories reveal neighbours sharing electricity, communities gathering firewood and families supporting one another when formal systems fall short. Looking beyond meters and bills, they show that access to energy is often created through trust, reciprocity and collective labour. Energy, in other words, is something we make together.
Shared power
Wood for everyone
The atmosphere of candles
The fire we share
Energy as
care
Every energy system depends on care. Caring for homes, maintaining technologies, repairing everyday objects and imagining fairer futures are all part of how energy is sustained. These stories ask who performs this often invisible work, who benefits from it and who is left out. Seeing energy as care shifts our attention from energy as a commodity towards energy as a shared responsibility and a question of justice.
After the sun
Power at home
Always plugged in
Finding common ground
The price of fairness
When energy became a product