Unequal Exchanges in the Urban/Rural Divide in the Green Transition

An ethically defensible transition to a sustainable society depends on public support for transformative changes, but green energy infrastructures have been criticised and resisted for the impact they have on various vulnerable groups. Research and policy have started to integrate social sustainability and justice dimensions into transition efforts. The initially narrow focus on workers in fossil industries has been widened to include other adversely affected groups and individuals such as spatially impacted communities. 

For the purpose of widening this perspective further, the countryside is an interesting site of inquiry since it is commonly targeted for green energy production. We study countryside sentiments about the green transition by examining a rural municipality in mid-Sweden, where rural residents see plans for an expansion of wind and solar energy as incompatible with countryside values. We show that rural residents display a deep-rooted sense of exclusion relative to centralized decision-making. Structural urban-rural power dynamics and grievances about disproportionate allocations of harms and benefits are perceived as aggravated by green investments. Here, these investments and the centralized decision-making that they are a result of are regarded as dismissive of contributions generated in the countrysidesuch as food production in times of crisis. 

The draft article on which this seminar is based speaks to the literature on local governance and transition justice by examining how the energy transition is compatible with rural efforts to build a vibrant countryside. We contribute with a novel reading of the justice dimensions in rural-urban power imbalances in the green transition as a matter of reciprocity, or lack thereof.

Read more about Eric Brandstedt here.

Read more about Georgia de Leeuw here.