Energy Images by Arthur Mason

Energy Images by Arthur Mason

Energy Images: Aesthetics of Resemblance and Form explores how visual representations of future oil and gas resources shape energy policy, investment decisions, and public understanding. Drawing on ethnographic research and visual analysis, the book shows how planners and corporations rely on abstract maps, models, and data visualizations to manage uncertainty and project authority, turning speculative futures into seemingly reliable objects of governance. The book extends the author’s previous investigation into how expertise, perception, and power operate across contemporary energy systems and introduces two aesthetic regimes – resemblance and form. Resemblance organizes perception through proximity and surface similarity, grounding energy in embodied experience and causal links between production and consumption. Form, by contrast, operates through distance and abstraction, transforming infrastructures into patterns, diagrams, and branded images that invite interpretation rather than recognition. Together, these insights reveal how aesthetics function as a central force in energy politics. This book will appeal to scholars in energy studies, anthropology, governance, and environmental humanities. Dr. Arthur Mason’s Routledge trilogy Inside the Energy Salon (2024–2026) explores how expert performance and curated interactions shape global energy governance. The trilogy develops an “anthropology of surfaces” arguing that the visual and social staging of expertise – rather than data alone – is what makes energy futures appear investable and morally persuasive to political and industry elites. It features the following books: Energy Capitol: The Waning of Regulatory Form (2024) Consulting Energy: From Judgment to Decision-Making (2025) Energy Images: Aesthetics of Resemblance and Form (2026)

Arthur Mason is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Social Anthropology at Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway. He also holds positions as Senior Visiting Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK, Research Associate in the Department of Anthropology at SOAS University of London, UK, and Research Affiliate at the Centre for Energy Ethics at the University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Scotland.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781041029151
ISBN 10	1041029152
Title	Energy Images
Author	Arthur Mason
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Routledge
Year published	2026-08-26
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.