Boitumelo James Malope graduated with a Ph.D (Sociology) from the University of Stellenbosch in April 2022, with a dissertation titled “Power struggles: An exploration of the contribution of renewable energy to sustainable development, decent work and the “just transition” through a case study of wind farm development outside Loeriesfontein, Northern Cape Province (2011-2020).” 

He has been awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Chair for 2022 to build on this work. The title of his research project is “Renewable energy and alternative sustainable livelihoods in the Karoo.”

He was previously at the University of Pretoria where he did his BA (2010), Honours (2013), and Master’s (2016). Areas of research interest in addition to the politics and sociology of the energy transition in South Africa are labour markets and youth unemployment.

Keywords: Sustainable Development; Renewable Energy; Political Economy.