Energy justice for rural communities: Towards pathways to empowerment in sustainability transitions

This project seeks to bring justice to rural residents in sustainable energy transitions. It will provide knowledge about energy injustices by exploring how they are felt and reproduced in rural areas.

The growth-oriented goals of the wind energy sector have made it difficult for rural actors to accept the development of wind power near their communities. Sweden aims to depend 100% on renewable energy by 2040, but opposition to its infrastructure compromises this goal.

Sustainability transitions turn rural spaces into geopolitical terrains of energy futures and challenge rural development. There is an urgent need to identify pathways to energy justice.

Considering rural micropolitics is crucial if Sweden is to fulfill its climate action goal, while reducing place inequalities and promoting sustainable communities.

We approach rural space as an assemblage of things, people and narratives to grasp how it is impacted by outside forces and reproduced in sustainable energy transitions.

We fill knowledge gaps in energy justice by seeking pathways to empower rural actors to participate meaningfully in politics of energy transition. With qualitative research, we invite rural stakeholders to tell stories of place and resistance.

We use participatory methods to co-create knowledge and work towards solutions for empowerment with participants, scholars and the general public. The researchers are social scientists experienced in intervening in rural areas undergoing societal transition.