'Embedding Green Capitalism: The Impacts of Biofuel Industries on Social Difference in Kenya's Great Rift Valley'

This project seeks to analyse the social impacts of two different biofuel industries on rural livelihoods in Kenya's Rift
Valley, specifically communities around the towns of Nanyuki and Naivasha, focusing explicitly on social difference in
terms of ethnicity, class and gender. With green capitalist solutions being proposed for issues, ranging from energy
security to conservation, there is increasing need for studies to document the social impact of these new divisions of
labour and new accumulations of capital, moving beyond simplistic monetary measurements of social development. In
other words, there is a need to understand the broader winners and losers of these projects. By comparing the croton
and jatropha biofuel industries in Kenya, this project seeks to address the lack of primary data of the social impacts of
both biofuels and green capitalism. Theoretically, this project will be cross-disciplinary in nature, combining elements of
political ecology and political economy. As this research seeks to analyse what effect the political economy of biofuel
projects has on forms of social difference, it is fundamentally concerned with divisions of labour. Political ecology also
allows for historical context to be accounted for, especially the legacy of past social-ecological relations and interactions.
The methods for this project will be based on a combination of interviews, focus group discussions, comprising of small
groups of homogenous participants.