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Political ecologies of energy poverty in Zimbabwe

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Abstract

Studies that attribute energy poverty to a lack of technical resources abound in Zimbabwe. However, such line of reasoning falls short of giving a rigorous analysis of the existing political-economic factors and scalar politics. These include power dynamics, gender relations, class, historic patterns of dominance and marginalisation at different geographical scales and the discourse on energy poverty. Accordingly, a political ecology framework can address these theoretical gaps given its expansive scope. Using a qualitative approach, a political ecology analysis of the Zingondi Resettlement Area in Zimbabwe illuminates the interaction between these factors. Furthermore, it extends the argument through a Foucauldian view on apparatus of security in order to understand how the state uses its calculated power to address energy poverty. It concludes that energy poverty is a processual outcome, which is socially constructed. Therefore, there is need to pay attention to the complex and diverse nature of rural development. This includes embracing a development with and for the people approach, which takes into account pertinent aspects of the intended beneficiaries’ contexts.

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  1. Department of Sociology, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, P.O. Box 524, Johannesburg, 2006, South Africa

    Ellen Fungisai Chipango

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  1. Ellen Fungisai Chipango
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Chipango, E.F. Political ecologies of energy poverty in Zimbabwe. GeoJournal 87, 5197–5211 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-021-10566-4

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