Light is mostly seen as a technical and aesthetic phenomenon. This book unravels its place at the heart of social life, and shows how people shed light for their home, not just on it. There is a cultural and social logic to lighting practices concerned with making specific things visible in very particular ways. By empirically showing how illumination and atmospheres matter as lenses, Mikkel Bille reveals how and why people shape their homes. Lighting has been dominated by technical, biological or aesthetics concerns, ignoring the social life it helps forge. In fact, Bille shows how illumination takes a central place in the constant attunement of environments as something that can be shared and designed. Using the case study of energy-saving lightbulbs in Denmark, Bille makes wider points about understanding the role of light as a cultural and social phenomenon, in particular using energy saving technology. Moving beyond the impact of its use, Bille comments on the politics of lighting to examine how ideas of pollution are combined with technological fixes to curb demand in the energy-saving lightbulb.

Attitudes to these measures are reflective of how human perceptions and practices are central to the efforts to cope with climate change. Using fascinating case studies enmeshed with wider ideas surrounding the use of light in the home, this is a must-read for students interested in anthropology, cultural studies, human geography, sociology and design.