Maclean, Gavin and Hill, David W. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3849-1170 (2025) A Crisis of Energy: War and Heat in the Professional Kitchens of North East England. Current Sociology. (In Press)

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Abstract

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022 led to a dramatic increase in energy prices in the UK. Chefs interviewed in the North East of England were found already struggling with post-lockdown re-opening, now huge energy bills and food shortages as a result of war, and then the conditions of a record-breaking heatwave in the summer of that year. This article conceptualises these experiences as a crisis of energy: the re-routing of desire through a consumerist system that is open-ended with war and the production of heat – and that is now collapsing. It is argued that the professional kitchen is situated at the intersection of flows of energy – consumer desire, bellicosity, electricity, the logistical kinesis of commodities – that underpin the everyday practices of the chef but that are now organised in a system of unproductive capitalism that is marked by shocks that disrupt those same practices. In response to the strain of crises, this system has a tendency to perpetuate itself through a retrenchment in consumerist homogeneity and an abandonment of the care and attention required for a convivial and sustainable future – for the food service sector or more broadly.

Item Type:	Article
Status:	In Press
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
School/Department:	York Business School
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/11426

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