Energy, Anthropology and Ethnography: On the Challenges of Studying Unconventional Gas Developments in Australia

Abstract

Over the last decade, unconventional coal seam gas (CSG) reserves in the Australian State of Queensland have been rapidly developed and include controversial extraction techniques such as hydraulic fracturing ('fracking'). Large-scale CSG projects primarily supply an international liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry. This has integrated regions of CSG extraction into global energy networks and wider societal debates about envisioned energy futures and climate change. In this article, we discuss how ethnographic research that aims to understand CSG or other energy developments holistically prompts ethnographers to rethink their 'field sites' and forces us to pay attention to global interconnections, methods, positionality, ethics, and the politics of representation. We explore these themes by first outlining some of the key developments in anthropology and ethnographic research over the past decades. This outline provides the groundwork for a discussion of the challenges arising during our own multi-sited ethnographic research in Queensland's Western Downs region. Our aim here is to spark debate about the shape of ethnographic energy research. With ethnographic methods increasingly used in social research, this discussion should be of broader interdisciplinary benefit. We conclude by highlighting the need for ethnographic reflexivity and contemplate the potential of interdisciplinary collaboration to address these questions.