abstract: 'India is undergoing a rapid transition to renewable energy; the Gujarat

  Solar Park typifies this transition. In addition to mitigating climate

  change, the Gujarat Solar Park boasts female empowerment through social

  development schemes. This manuscript is inspired by the following

  research question: To what extent are gender positive'' processes and

  projects associated with solar development in India realized on the

  ground? Utilizing mixed methods fieldwork and drawing on literature from

  feminist political ecology, this paper demonstrates how the modalities

  of solar park development represent an antinomy of a nature-society

  relation. New configurations of labor under the political economy of

  solar have produced a gendered surplus population of landless peasants

  who are not absorbed into wage-labor employment in the solar park.

  Further, associated social development schemes actually disempower

  women, despite mandates of `gender positive'' outcomes by UN-based

  climate treaties to which this project is beholden. The opportunity to

  participate in one such scheme for female empowerment was reserved for

  only women of middle-to-high class status and those of dominant castes,

  thereby reproducing class and caste-based social power asymmetries.

  Female (dis)empowerment eclipses `gender positive'' guarantees of the

  solar park. This study highlights some unintended consequences of

  sustainable energy transitions in the Global South at the local scale.

  Designing development interventions related to climate change mitigation

  that boast `gender positive'' outcomes must be careful not to exacerbate

  gender disparities and economic exclusion in rural areas. (C) 2020

  Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.'
affiliation: 'Stock, R (Corresponding Author), Northern Michigan Univ, Dept Earth
  Environm \& Geog Sci, 1401 Presque Isle Ave, Marquette, MI 49855 USA.

  Stock, Ryan, Northern Michigan Univ, Dept Earth Environm \& Geog Sci, 1401 Presque
  Isle Ave, Marquette, MI 49855 USA.'
article-number: '105196'
author: Stock, Ryan
author-email: rystock@nmu.edu
author_list:
- family: Stock
  given: Ryan
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105196
eissn: 1873-5991
files: []
issn: 0305-750X
journal: WORLD DEVELOPMENT
keywords: 'Energy transition; Solar park; Antinomy; Feminist political ecology;

  Gender; Intersectionality'
keywords-plus: 'CLIMATE-CHANGE ADAPTATION; POLITICAL ECOLOGY; CLEAN DEVELOPMENT; ENERGY;

  VULNERABILITY; GEOGRAPHIES; COMMUNITY; POWER; TRANSITIONS; DYNAMICS'
language: English
month: FEB
number-of-cited-references: '98'
papis_id: e361f6f294f88c9e5ea6712ba23fe404
ref: Stock2021brightnight
times-cited: '16'
title: 'Bright as night: Illuminating the antinomies of `gender positive'' solar development'
type: article
unique-id: WOS:000601162800039
usage-count-last-180-days: '5'
usage-count-since-2013: '18'
volume: '138'
web-of-science-categories: Development Studies; Economics
year: '2021'