Justice in energy transformations as a spatial phenomenon: A framework for analyzing multi-dimensional justice claims

Energy transformations not only evoke multi-dimensional claims for just distribution, recognition, and procedures, but also reveal how these claims depend on and shape the spatial context that they address. The aim of this contribution is to provide a framework that connects spatial and multi-dimensional aspects of justice in energy transition research. It builds on literature in the fields of just transition studies and energy justice. While the relevance of considering space and scale in socio-technical transitions is widely acknowledged, a conceptual framework can help to connect justice and spatiality in transitions and support scrutiny of their interconnections. The present work seeks to address this gap by incorporating contributions from the fields of political geography and political theory. Accordingly, it discusses central intersections in the moral–spatial tension field. Spatial justice claims are conceptualized as referring at the same time to moral (substance-related) and spatial dimensions of (in)justice and relating both to each other. The paper conceptualizes how justice claims refer to multiple scales, center-periphery relations, interterritorial and infrastructure-related concerns as well as to place-based attachments. It discusses the positioning of actors in this moral-spatial field as well as the reference to directional patterns of responsibility and effect. Attention to spatial justice claims further discloses processes of boundary construction, perpetuation, and contestation as well as the regional entrenchment of widely shared justice claims. Transformation-related political institutions and processes in affected regions reveal how various spatial justice claims are publicly related to each other.