Energy of One's Own

This article explores the intersections between energy, gender, and labor and the multiple and multidirectional transitions involved in the expansion of renewable forms of energy. Drawing on ethnographic research in the country of Tanzania between 2019 and 2024, from the island of Zanzibar, rural Singida, and peri-urban Arusha, it examines how gender organizes social life, space, labor, and the distribution of new energy resources. Rooted in interview data that tracks how people in diverse households understand the relative benefits of household solar and grid electricity, this article demonstrates how electricity expansion initiatives have reinforced gendered and spatial binaries, as well as brought about social change that undermines and unsettles them. It argues that the uncritical prioritization of “productive uses of energy” comes with problematic costs for women and broader goals of energy transition

Electricity · Energy (signal processing · Energy transition · Ethnography · Mains electricity · Renewable energy · Sociotechnical system · Tanzania · Energy and Environment Impacts · Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy · Water Governance and Infrastructure

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