Carlo Alessandro Castellanelli, Constanza Parra, Artur da Rosa Pires, The politics of possibility in just transitions: A Foucauldian reading, Energy Research & Social Science, Volume 129, 2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2025.104375
Abstract
Drawing from Michel Foucault’s notions of power, knowledge, governmentality, and biopolitics, we explore the epistemological and ontological foundations of just transition discourses. Current hegemonic conceptualizations of just transitions, though generally accepted as noble endeavours, risk reproducing power structures that prioritize specific socio-technical pathways and knowledge regimes, making them ill-equipped for radical imaginations of alternative futures. Our analysis reveals how dominant just transition narratives may subtly function as disciplinary mechanisms that govern populations by constraining possibilities to market-oriented and technocratic solutions, reinforcing individual responsibility, neglecting systemic critiques, and marginalizing radical alternatives. This framing not only limits the scope of social transformation but also shapes the very subjects, objects and forms of life it aims to liberate. In doing so, it reinforces the same power structures it seeks to dismantle. Responding to this challenge, we argue that fostering (r)evolutionary practices across different contexts requires critically examining how discourses shape realities and constrain possibilities. By deconstructing the politics of possibility of just transitions in the Anthropocene, we hope to contribute to a granular (and reflexive) understanding of this evolving paradigm – one that challenges epistemological closures within sustainability discourse and remains attentive to different ontologies, epistemologies, and lived experiences.
Keywords
Foucault; Just transitions; Sustainability transitions; Power; Governmentality; Biopolitics
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