Short Abstract

The session rethinks “resilient futures” through transformative environmental justice, exploring how Indigenous and local knowledge, decolonial practices, and cross-border solidarities can reshape green transition policies toward genuine co-governance and equity.

Description

The green transition is widely lauded as a model of sustainability and fairness. Yet, the research reveals a deeper tension: despite the rhetoric of inclusion and openness, many Indigenous, grassroots local, and cross-border communities remain marginalized in decision-making on energy and environmental policy. The present open session invites contributions that examine how the aspiration of “resilient futures” can be re-imagined through the lens of transformative environmental justice—emphasising power redistribution, decolonial practices, and multi-scale deliberation.

We encourage submissions that explore questions such as: how do local and Indigenous epistemologies challenge the predominant techno-managerial framing of the green transition? In what ways can regional policy frameworks move beyond typical stakeholder consultation to genuine co-governance? How can cross-border (e.g., Baltic-Nordic) solidarities deepen the capacities of historically marginalized communities to shape trajectories of change? We invite contributions that aim to surface the systemic injustices embedded in energy transitions and to rethink STS approaches to “resilient futures” through an explicitly justice-oriented prism.

This session seeks to bridge empirical case studies, theoretical reflection, and methodological innovation: we invite proposals that deploy novel participatory methods, comparative perspectives across the Nordic-Baltic area and beyond, or conceptual critique of resilience, transition and justice narratives. Ultimately, we hope to stimulate a richer STS conversation: no transition is just unless democratic engagement, epistemic plurality and historic inequalities are placed at its core.

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