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Vasna2023

Vasna Ramasar

Associate professor

Vasna2023

Winds of change: An engaged ethics approach to energy justice

Author

  • Eric Brandstedt
  • Henner Busch
  • Ellen Lycke
  • Vasna Ramasar

Summary, in English

Theories of energy justice are standardly used to evaluate decision-making and policy-design related to energy infrastructure. All too rarely attention is paid to the need for a method of justifying principles of justice as well as justice-based judgments that are appealed to in this context. This article responds to this need by offering an engaged ethics approach to normative justification useful for energy justice theory. More specifically, it presents a method of public reflective equilibrium and shows its potential as systematic method for both anchoring analyses of justice in practically relevant judgments and for critically examining perceived injustices. The method is developed and demonstrated through the case of injustices related to a hypothetical but realistic case of wind power development. Participants were invited to a process of justifying justice-claims, using a version of the method of public reflective equilibrium. They reflected on a preliminary normative framework created by the research team and visually depicted by a graphic artist. The analysis of the workshop identifies the following three themes as particularly important for just wind power development: (1) establishing trust among the stakeholders; (2) questioning energy demand; and (3) identifying the right site and scale for energy decisions. All three themes have to do with fair procedures. The latter part of the paper explores what this means for theorising energy justice and outlines a theory of imperfect procedural energy justice.

Department/s

  • Human Rights Studies
  • LU Profile Area: Human rights
  • LUCSUS (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies)
  • Department of Human Geography

Publishing year

2024-01

Language

English

Publication/Series

Energy Research & Social Science

Volume

110

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Elsevier

Topic

  • Energy Systems
  • Social Sciences Interdisciplinary

Status

Published

Project

  • Energy Justice 2.0: Justice in Sustainability Transitions - Theme Pufendorf IAS
  • Navigating Justice Claims: Between Riots, Strikes and Business as Usual

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2214-6326