Justice in Sustainability Transitions (Ju-ST)
The aim of this thematic group is to bring together the growing community of scholars and practitioners working on questions of justice in sustainability transitions research, teaching and practice. We hope to promote and foster dialogue among diverse actors across different spaces on justice in sustainability transitions.
Current polycrises, characterized by their border-crossing, multi-scale and intersectional properties, invoke an urgent need for the scrutiny of justice dimensions. So far, justice concerns have been mainly addressed as redistribution of resources to address inequality (distributional justice), through fair and democratic engagements (procedural justice) and representation along categories of social differences in these decision making (recognitional justice) is decisive in justice work. Many of these justice issues have structural components, reflecting the complexity of placing justice as a core concern in sustainability transitions. Furthermore, several questions on how to translate and apply these justice dimensions remain.
All this interest, however, remains fragmented in certain debates or empirical and spatial foci (e.g. energy justice in certain European countries), which hinders theoretical and empirical progress and impedes a more fruitful conversation between researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. Therefore, the Ju-ST Thematic Group establishes a dedicated space for fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and research at the intersections of justice and sustainability transitions.
We strive to create a space for interactions, knowledge-sharing, and co-creation of activities between interested scholars, beyond the once-a-year conference meetings. The Thematic Group aims to connect scholars and practitioners working on different aspects of just sustainability transitions around the globe and help build a community of research and practice around this topic. We seek active collaboration with colleagues working on and addressing questions of justice in sustainability transitions, such as Special Interest Group on Justice, Power and Transformative Action in Sustainability (JUPITA) and JUSTRA Cities Network.
Planned activities of the Ju-ST Thematic Group includes:
● Collaboration through conference formats: annual IST conference sessions as well as sessions, seminars, workshops at other conferences and events;
● Exchange within diversity of formats: reading groups, sharing circles, art-based interventions;
● Joint (scientific) activities: writing of collaborative pieces and proposals;
● Cooperation with other STRN Thematic Groups through an open invitation and cross-exchange.
We facilitate exchange and networking within a broad inter- and transdisciplinary community, supporting continuous debate and the development of a shared research agenda. We welcome anyone interested in contributing to the group. If you are interested in being part of the community, participating in, proposing and organizing Ju-ST events, please join the mailing list: justsustainabilitytransitions@googlegroups.com.
If you are interested in becoming a member of or collaborating with the Ju-ST group, please get in touch via just.trans.strn@gmail.com. The group is currently coordinated by Katharina Biely, Kristina Bogner, Marina Novikova and Katharina Schiller. However, the group is a bottom-up initiative with shared responsibility and decision making which wants to co-create this group with you and the community, which is why we happily invite you to engage if you like to coordinate too.