Appearances do matter! In rural India, where I work, I've noticed a tendency among households to choose products which look more characteristic of city life. I've seen households preferring to buy a costlier stove which bears the likeness of a gas-stove, to a cheaper and more efficient stove which looks like a plain grill. I have always wanted to explore the importance of design and external appearance on stove acceptance and adoption, but could not come across a lot of literature on the subject. However, I'm sure rural users evaluate each stove in a matrix of criteria (which varies widely among communities), and stove appearance does figure high in the list.
Regards, Arun Sreekumar The Energy and Resources Institute On 23 March 2013 06:08, Cecil Cook <[email protected]> wrote: > Building on Marc's point, I have found in a number of circumstances it > makes sense for the new thing to masquerade as the old thing even though it > embodies many innovations. My experience is with a range of village > technologies including stoves. > > Also, beauty in in the eye of the collective beholder. What I consider > beautiful, someone else considers ugly or ungraceful. One element that may > tie beauty and functionality together with economics is the concept of > cultural 'branding' by which I mean if the technos looks traditional, it > gets a name and immediately becomes familiar and even trustworthy. The > trick is to incorporate innovations in a way that leaves enough of the old > appearance in tact so that a product can use the old brand and name. > > That way the new thing becomes the old thing and visa versa. I believe it > is helpful for modern western people and powerful professionals to restrain > the understandable urge to remake the world according to their 'modern' > ethos and aesthetics of the moment, but let's face it ... there are many > convert and overt wars going on under the disguise of globalization. > > Here in Indonesia where I am at this moment, I have the perception that > the incredibly dense self governing urban villages - called Kampongs - in > its cities have discovered the social, economic and political institutions > that are desperately needed in places like the South Bronx in New York, the > collapsed inner city areas of Detroit and the South side of Chicago. > > We have to study the old thing very carefully before we decide that it > looks ugly. > > In search, > Cecil Cook > > On Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 9:40 PM, Marc-Antoine Pare <[email protected]>wrote: > >> Yeah, I've always thought this was an interesting conversation. >> >> One anecdote: >> In designing gasifiers for rural brick-makers, I found that "ugly" in the >> sense of "looks industrial" was not necessarily a bad thing: the operators >> and mechanics were happy to see that the device *looked like something >> they were familiar with*. Hence, they could maintain it, modify it, etc. >> >> Of course, this was a product for small industry, not for consumers. The >> same reasoning may not hold for a household customer. >> >> -marc >> >> >> On 3/22/13 12:22 PM, Josh Kearns wrote: >> >> Thought stovers would like to know of a parallel conversation going on in >> the WASH sector.... >> >> http://www.source.irc.nl/page/77512 >> >> >> >> -- >> Josh Kearns >> PhD Candidate, Environmental Engineering >> University of Colorado-Boulder >> Visiting Researcher, North Carolina State University >> >> Director of Science >> Aqueous Solutions >> www.aqsolutions.org >> >> Mobile: 720 989 3959 >> Skype: joshkearns >> >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Stoves mailing list >> >> to Send a Message to the list, use the email >> [email protected] >> >> to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web >> pagehttp://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org >> >> for more Biomass Cooking Stoves, News and Information see our web >> site:http://www.bioenergylists.org/ >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Stoves mailing list >> >> to Send a Message to the list, use the email address >> [email protected] >> >> to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page >> >> http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org >> >> for more Biomass Cooking Stoves, News and Information see our web site: >> http://www.bioenergylists.org/ >> >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > Stoves mailing list > > to Send a Message to the list, use the email address > [email protected] > > to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page > > http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org > > for more Biomass Cooking Stoves, News and Information see our web site: > http://www.bioenergylists.org/ > > > -- Project Management Unit The Energy and Resources Institute A-93, Janki Nagar, Chuna Bhatti Kolar Road, Bhopal - 462 013 Madhya Pradesh Ph: +91-755-4045354
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