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This paper argues that cultural analyses of electric light, including aspects of actor-network theory, may raise the spectre of complexity, but do not do it justice when they omit to provide analysis of the intertwined roles of culture and political economy in the formation of the provision and use of electric light. The essay looks at the marketization of electric power, at outages in the eastern and western US megacities, at the collapse of the public utility model and chaotic implementation of market models in Mumbai, Lagos and other poor megacities, and concludes that while theft of power provides a temporary solution, abandoning centralized market models in favour of microgrids is the only sure way to return agency to slum dwellers.

Published in 1925 and 1928 under title: Political ownership and the electric light and power industry. ; "N.E.L.A. publication no. 289-13"--T.p. verso. ; Includes bibliographical references (p. 510-524) and index. ; Mode of access: Internet.

Since its invention, electric lighting has had a decisive impact on the psychogeography of urban space. Concentrating on the period from 1880 to World War II, the author argues that electrical lighting has been a major factor in the emergence of modern urban environments, in which the traditional function of architecture as a stable ground has increasingly given way to a growing mutability of forms and fluidity of appearances. This tendency both paralleled and converged with the effects of modern media technologies such as cinema, contributing to the emergence of a new environment characterized by "relational space," in which the city is increasingly defined by the overlap of material and immaterial spatial regimes.

Material relating to inventor and entrepreneur Charles Brush. Description of Electric Lighting in Boston, from the New York review of the Telegraph and Telephone, 1882. Mentions Boston government placing up to 100 lamps, orders of 33 private lights, a total of 250 lamps. Mentions a new station being planned for Harrison Avenue, and an expansion of the Lancaster Street station, for which the capacity was being increased from 240 to 498 lamps. Also discussed the New England Weston Electric Light Company's utility installations in Boston and the number of lights it installed across New England.