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Paper short abstract:

This paper problematises the just transition frameworks that have come to predominate in academic and policy debates and, inspired by Nancy Fraser, argues for a more radical approach centres on the unequal relations of power that generate injustice within green transitions.

Paper long abstract:

In recent years, the concept of ‘just transition’ has become central to academic and policy discourse focused on the problematique of reconciling competing justice claims within efforts to address climate change and ecological destruction more broadly. A notable feature has been the development of just transition ‘frameworks, most notably the ‘JUST’ Framework, introduced in 2018 and actively promoted to international organisations and national governments as a way of evaluating their progress towards a ‘just transition’. This paper takes stock of the project of just transition framework construction and promotion and its implications. We argue that the often-abstracted nature of framework construction from the struggle(s) to advance just transitions, along with a related inattention to power, has led to frameworks that can obscure rather than identify and challenge the social relations that produce inequality and injustice. Drawing on the work of Nancy Fraser, we argue this tendency leads to a strong emphasis on change through technocratic structures while circumscribing redistributive justice in such a way as to avoid challenging existing social and power relations. To counter these tendencies, we call for a more radical approach to theorizing just transitions, one that not only addresses questions of redistribution, recognition and representation but centres on the uneven relations of power that generate injustices within and across these three dimensions. Case-study evidence drawn from both the global North and global South helps to illustrate the potential of this new approach in analytical, explanatory and political terms.