Noticing
One of the points I tried to make in a past presentation, and which I hope to bloviate about more here in the future, is that looking at energy as just a technology or just a commodity--and thus subject to simple economic calculations--is to play the laggard's game. We need, instead, to look at energy as multiple things, and one of the key ones is that it plays a cultural role. Most fundamentally, this means that our culture today is adapted to (and in turns shapes) our energy use and our energy sources. The easiest examples of this are always in the past, of course: Think of what the drive-in used to be, and think of what enabling technologies it required to exist. That sort of thing.
One likely result of this is that changing our energy sources and system will encounter resistance (people resist cultural change, because it changes who they are), and that the relation between culture and energy will go in unexpected directions. On the other hand, it also clear that culture and values are currently some of the primary drivers of exactly this change.
So, with that in mind, here's a link to anthropologist Grant McCracken talking a little bit about how anthropologists go about noticing things. It's not at all about the environment or energy use, but I think this sense of being able to see mundane things as new and interesting is important. As it says in the title to his blog, McCracken works at the intersection of anthropology and economics, though when he says "economics" he seems to mostly mean "corporate business and marketing". Still, it's an interesting read.
Incidentally, when I did my graduate work (talking to businesses in a small city in Michigan about their interest in participating in a green power program), I created my interviews based on a handbook by McCracken, The Long Interview.
P.S.: I created a new category for this post called "Culture shock," because--hey, electricity is shocking, right? Anyway, it should be considered a temporary category until I think of something a little less aggressive. Mostly, right now I just want to call attention to my pun.