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- Convenor:
-
Tessa Boumans
(Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Send message to Convenor
- Chair:
-
Tessa Boumans
(Erasmus University Rotterdam)
- Format:
- Traditional Open Panel
- Location:
- NU-2B11
- Sessions:
- Tuesday 16 July, -
Time zone: Europe/Amsterdam
Short Abstract:
We explore the intersection between STS and the ‘Just Transition Framework’ (JT). JT has been primarily confined to the energy transition, yet can be mutually useful for STS. We explore JT in different contexts, and therefore encourage a more inclusive, justice-driven sustainable transition debate.
Long Abstract:
The purpose of this panel is to explore the intersection of two academic domains that hold the promise of shaping our future - Just Transition Theory (JT) and STS.
The word ‘justice’ can often be politicized in societal debates and used in a negative way to undermine justice debates (Sobande et al., 2022). However, scholars should remain aware that justice theories are thoroughly based in a wide range of socio-political academic fields. These fundamentals of justice theories can help to depolarize societal debates and at the same time guide a more sustainable and fair transition.
So far, JT debates have been mostly held in the domain of the global energy transition (McCauley and Pettigrew 2023, Sravan and Mirsha 2023, Thapa et al. 2023, Weitzel et al. 2023), assessing and promoting “fairness and equity throughout the transition away from fossil fuels." However, the importance of justice is not confined to the field of energy policy, economics, and law.
In the field of STS and transitions, the importance of justice is ever-present but under-explored. For example, Jasanoff & Kim's (2015) concept of socio-technical imaginaries explores the notion of 'desirable futures'. From a JT perspective, claims about what constitutes a “desirable” social transition opens up new lines of justice enquiry.
STS as a field is yet to fully explore structural inequities such as ageism, ableism, heteronormativity, racism, colonialism, and classism - and the intersections of these domains. For this panel, we explore how to merge these works in a robust, context-sensitive JT framework. This effort is a call for inclusivity, one where technology serves human development in a more profound way, now and in the future. Critical theoretical reflections and empirical contributions for this panel are therefore welcome on the intersections between justice, structural inequities and technologies.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Tuesday 16 July, 2024, -Paper short abstract:
By conceptualizing palm oil sustainability standards as a 'technology of governance', contradictions between how standards are created and implemented, and the capabilities and needs of small farmers, are revealed. A counter-factual analysis shows ways in which a just transition can be achieved.
Paper long abstract:
Palm oil is an important cash crop for rural communities in tropical climate zones. Since the early 2000s, there has been a movement to develop and implement voluntary sustainability standards for palm oil production, notably through the creation of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). However, small farmers in particular have faced challenges in implementing RSPO standards, and different approaches have been tried to overcome barriers to adoption. This paper conceptualizes sustainability standards as a ‘technology of governance’ in the Foucauldian sense, and by combining Actor-Network Theory and Diffusion of Innovation Theory, analyzes efforts sponsored by a large multinational corporation to implement sustainable palm oil standards among small farmers in Johor, Malaysia to support their inclusion in global supply chains. The analysis highlights the contradictions between how palm oil standards are created and implemented, and the capabilities and needs of small farmers. The analysis suggests that the sustainability certification requirements place small farmers at a structural disadvantage and provide insufficient economic returns to cover certification costs. This inhibits the diffusion of certification among small farmers and hinders a 'just transition' in the palm oil sector. A counterfactual analysis of a sustainability standard that is co-created by small farmers provides a direction for the improvement and design of sustainability standards in order to facilitate a just transition.
Paper short abstract:
In this talk we first present the concept of technopolitical transitions, then use Decidim (a free software, digital platform for participatory democracy) as a paradigmatic case study, then outline the democratizing horizons and practices of the project along with their multiple relations to STS.
Paper long abstract:
The talk explores the concept of "technopolitical transition", dissects a paradigmatic case study and outlines their relations to STS. "Socio-technical transitions" are understood, from the Multi-Level Perspective (Geels, 2019), as long-term transformations involving struggles at the micro, meso and macro level, including everyday life practices, organizational structures, technical procedures, visions of the future, market and state dynamics, among other factors. Meanwhile, technopolitics has been defined as "the strategic practice of designing or using technology to constitute, embody, or enact political goals" (Hetch, 2009). Technopolitical transitions thereby point to multi-level entanglements of, as well as strategic and tactical interventions into, the technological and the political fields as threads or drivers for broader sociotechnical change. To illustrate this we assess Decidim, a free software for participatory democracy used by over 500 organizations and 3'5 million people worldwide. One speaker is a Decidim co-founder and has framed it as a participatory software aiming for a recursive democratization of politics, technology, and society, more broadly (a "technopolitical democratization", Calleja-López, 2017). The talk presents the limits and potentialities of Decidim for embodying and promoting such aims, while showing how STS has been relevant in its conception and deployment.
References.
Calleja López, A. (2017). Since 15M: the technopolitical reassembling of democracy in Spain. Doctoral Thesis. University of Exeter.
Geels, F. W. (2019). Socio-technical transitions to sustainability: A review of criticisms and elaborations of the Multi-Level Perspective. Current opinion in environmental sustainability, 39, 187-201.
Hecht, G. (2009). The radiance of France: Nuclear power and national identity after World War II. MIT press.