a b s t r a c tThis short communication suggests the need to attend carefully to the social value of energy in designing projects to reduce energy poverty. We define the social value of energy in terms of the total value derived by an individual or community from the use of energy, including economic and other forms of value, less any risks or burdens that accompany energy production, transmission, and consumption. This simple definition enables two significant assessments. First, the social value of energy projects can be compared to their costs, to evaluate whether projects are worth investing in, even if they may appear uneconomic in narrower terms. This is especially significant in contexts such as off-grid or renewable energy projects that may have higher energy costs. Second, the socio-technical design of energy projects can be evaluated to determine whether the project will deliver the kinds of energy services, via appropriate strategies, that enhance social value.

During the Futurescape City Tours, sponsored by the Center for Nanotechnology in Society, citizens engaged in an urban walking experience that involved observing, documenting and deliberating about the past, present and future of technology in the urban environment. Central to this experience was the use of photography as the place of work where the citizen-photographers created a visual language to grant meaning and structure to their experience and deliberations. Drawing on Barthe's (1980) idea of semiology as a construction of meaning through the exploration and identification of systematic regularities of signs and objects, as well on Benjamin's (1999) notion that there is no photography without discourse, this paper demonstrates what these individuals see as their relationship to their city as portrayed through photographic observations. This paper aims to empirically illustrate the uses and power of an image to mediate discourse and representations of technological change in the city. Further, it opens a scholarly conversation on role of visual cultures in the construction of the necessary capacities among individuals to critically reflect on their role as technological citizens toward better understanding pathways to sustainability. To do so, we conducted a visual ethnography of the participants' photographic images and captions. By pushing the boundaries of photography beyond an artistic practice into the realm of public engagement, we demonstrate the ways in which Ba camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera,^as Dorothea Lange once stated.

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is as associate professor in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. She also serves as the Education Director for the QESST Engineering Research Center. Michelle's program of research focuses on social interactions in collaborative learning contexts. She is particularly interested in how students navigate communication challenges as they negotiate complex engineering design projects. Her scholarship is grounded in notions of learning as a social process, influenced by complexity theories, sociocultural theories, sociolinguistics, and the learning sciences.

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