PhD project Narratives of the so-called green transition is not (yet) a reality. What is real about them is the way that they are spatialised and materialised. This project asks what these spatial consequences are, how they are experienced, and by whom. It explores how such consequences can be used to think critically about the narratives driving change and how these are entangled with histories of extraction, displacement, and dispossession. Can they also help us imagine more just, collective futures?
This project aims to critically examine green transition narratives, a set of narratives that have, in recent years, come to dominate the way that development is framed (especially in northern Sweden). It focuses on the spatial and material consequences of these narratives, using collaborative methods to trace lived experiences of ongoing change. The contribution is a critical examination of so-called green transition narratives, which deepens understandings of the role of spatial practice in shaping just transitions and adds to local knowledge of ongoing change.
This PhD project takes as its starting point the narratives surrounding the so-called “green” transition, and their spatial and material realities. These narratives are closely linked to growth-oriented development imaginaries—such as green growth, sustainable development, and techno-optimism—that currently shape how climate action is framed. In Sweden and across Europe, they are advanced largely through industrial “megaprojects” led and relying on private actors, and reproduced by institutions and media. Examples include “green” industrial projects such as fossil-free steel, battery production, and the extraction of resources for new technologies.
A green future, for all?
Despite promises of justice alongside reduced emissions and continued economic growth, there is an emerging critique that “green” transition narratives risk sidelining social justice, reproducing colonial patterns of extraction, reinforcing spatial inequalities, and limiting how we imagine alternative paths forward. In the pursuit of a just future for all, it is therefore clear that critical perspectives on these types of narratives are crucial. Furthermore, we know far too little about the spaces that green transition narratives produce, i.e. their local spatial and material realities. It is here, moving between narratives and spaces, that the PhD project operates. Overarchingly, it aims to deepen the understanding of what these narratives do. By exploring the touchpoints, tensions and contradictions between the vision and spatial reality of “green” transition narratives, it critically examines their claims to social and ecological sustainability and the notion of justice. The project is also interested in what these spaces might reveal about how a just transition might be (re)considered in alternative ways.
The work is grounded in and supported by a theoretical framework which centres space and care. Throughout, storytelling is used as a praxis and method for decolonising knowledge production, focusing on accountability and ethical engagement. To examine and explore the relationships between the different scales and dimensions of “green” transition narratives, the project combines ananalysis of relevant discourse with collaborative ethnographic spatial mapping and autoethnographic and reflexive work.
The contribution is a critical examination of so-called green transition narratives, which deepens understandings of the role of spatial practice in shaping just transitions and adds to local knowledge of ongoing change.
