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Paper short abstract:

Global energy access demands North-South collaboration in deploying off-grid technologies in remote areas. Such projects often neglect local socio-technical contexts, causing power imbalances. Our research uses a postcolonial lens to promote community-driven, inclusive, and sustainable approach.

Paper long abstract:

Achieving SDG 7's goal of ensuring universal access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy remains a significant challenge, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Off-grid clean energy solutions have emerged as viable alternatives, offering technologies like solar panels, clean cookstoves, and microgrids. However, these interventions often overlook the socio-technical fabric of local communities, leading to power imbalances and inhibiting long-term sustainability of energy projects. This research aims to explore these dynamics through a postcolonial lens, emphasizing the importance of engaging women as primary energy users and agents of change. Our methodology includes a comprehensive literature review on postcolonial studies, reflective self-assessments by the research team, and interviews with researchers and practitioners. Preliminary findings highlight the pitfalls of top-down interventions, such as inadequate technology design, ethical dilemmas, and resistance to change due to cultural misalignments. To address these issues, we advocate for a participatory design approach that fosters community ownership and inclusivity. By recognizing and addressing power imbalances, we propose strategies for building trust, engaging communities in all project stages, and ensuring mutual learning between researchers and local stakeholders. This approach aims to create sustainable and contextually relevant energy solutions that empower communities, particularly women, thereby fostering long-term sustainability and resilience. Our research underscores the necessity of decolonizing innovation practices and promoting epistemic plurality to achieve energy justice in a global scale.

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Paper short abstract:

The Just transition is currently a widely used concept, with diverse definitions across actors. We collected primary data from policymakers, citizens and researchers to explore a) the different conceptualizations of just transitions; b) the link between (just) energy transitions and post-growth.

Paper long abstract:

Just transition is a widely used concept and policy framework. At its core, it argues for energy transitions that consider also social justice. Nonetheless, the use of the Just Transition concept has spread, and there are now many diverse definitions and understandings. On one extreme, just transitions can be conceptualized as a technocratic solution to decarbonization, within a continuation of economic growth; on the other extreme they argue for systemic change as decarbonization and justice cannot happen within the current system.

Therefore, given the plethora of definitions, it is unclear what exactly a just transition entails and how it should be concretely realized. To have a better understanding, we collected primary data from policymakers, citizens and researchers. More specifically, we implemented surveys at climate negotiations, academic conferences and through nationally representative in different countries. In such surveys we elicit information and opinions on both a) the conceptualization and the implementation design of just transitions to achieve decarbonization within social justice; and b) on the need and possibility of continuous economic growth (in different contexts) and the potential for a new economic system.

The results (data are currently being analysed) will shed light on how different categories perceive just transitions. Understanding the preferences of different societal groups is critical to address the political economy of energy and climate change policies; this is especially relevant in climate change negotiations where many actors with different priorities have to negotiate. We also explore the links between post-growth and the (just) energy transitions agendas.

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Paper short abstract:

I would like to bring the discourse that alternative (to) development practices in the Global South particularly in the Philippines exhibit a form of degrowth ideals through the lens of the local values of aruga (ethics of care). These are shown through two case studies of zero waste communities.

Paper long abstract:

The current socio-ecological crisis is driving explorations of alternatives to mainstream development thinking. Although degrowth engenders alternative conceptualizations and practices of development, its potentially significant social and cultural dimensions are yet to be fully examined. While research and experiments on degrowth focus on the Global North, similar work is lacking in the Global South. At the same time, civil society and scholars in the Global South are experimenting with parallel approaches that – like degrowth and post-growth – seek to subvert growth-based economies and amplify community-led thinking and practice. At the crux of the politics behind these alternatives to development movements are the tasks of ‘imagining, producing, circulating’ better material flows (Schlosberg and Craven, 2019), with important implications for how we use and manage waste. Building on a four-month period of fieldwork in two zero waste communities in the Philippines, this chapter explores what conditions enable alternatives to capitalism such as degrowth and post-growth to be mobilized in practice in developing countries like the Philippines. The research is informed by a political ecology lens and draws primarily on qualitative methodologies. It explores the underpinnings of community-led zero waste management systems in central Philippines and the movements behind these from the lens of local values of ‘aruga’ (care) and ‘ginhawa’ (well-being). In conclusion, the chapter unpacks lessons that can be learned both for the relevance of degrowth and post-growth in the Philippines, and pathways to navigate our current ‘wasteocene’.