Short Abstract:

Phasing out coal mining risks leaving coalfield residents in the Global South dispossessed and jobless neither able to revert to agriculture nor find jobs in the 'modern' economy. This panel explores social relations in coalfields to theorise a liminal transition to uncertain coal-free futures.

Long Abstract:

The urgency of phasing out coal mining is unquestionable given the escalating climate crisis. The social realities in key coal geographies in the Global South, however, present complex situations that challenge a neat transition. Dispossessed poor indigenous and low caste groups continue to inhabit heavily mined spaces, with varying degrees of dependence on the coal economy for livelihoods that are overwhelmingly informal and precarious. This panel proposes a critical look at social relations around land and labour in the coalfields to theorise a liminal transition – a transition where coalfield groups can neither revert to earlier agrarian livelihoods, nor find new jobs in the ‘modern’ economy.

Liminality in the context of coal is an uncertain condition of in-betweenness, between an agrarian past, a present dominated by coal, and a future that is potentially coal-free. In coal areas, severe physical and ecological degradation challenge the resumption of land-based livelihoods, and labour is locked into forms of predatory capture by coal companies, both state and private. Plans for green development and just transitions in coal areas risk reproducing these past exclusions and injustices leaving coalfield communities with continued informal coal mining as their only option to get by.

Anchored in an ongoing research project studying the future of coal mining lands in India, this panel invites submissions from coal geographies in India and beyond. Together we will seek to theorise the liminal transition based on coal-land and labour relations and seek answers to big questions in support of a just coal-free future.

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