Industry, Nation, and Energy in Peronist Argentina

This paper reveals that the progressive standardization of Argentine kitchens through the purchase and use of gas stoves involved more than the redefinition of advertising discourses to attract new consumers. It entailed the active intervention of the state in setting conditions for the manufacture of appliances, a process that coincided with the full nationalization of the production of these household artifacts. Most importantly, the analysis further demonstrates that the popularization of gas stoves depended on the democratization of gas both as a natural resource that was culturally meaningful—involving representations of nature, national prowess, and economic liberation—and as a public service that was social and economically relevant—including the notion of a better standard of living and of state responsibilities. My paper studies the domestic appliance market’s intrinsic relation to the consumption of energy and of public services, bringing together objects of analysis that the fields of consumption studies and environmental studies have for the most part approached separately. In line with current debates on sustainable consumption and renewable natural resources, the research focuses on the historical adoption of new consumer durables at home as dependent on the collective consumption of particular fuels.