Expanding the scope of just transitions: Towards localized solutions and community-level dynamics

The academic interpretation of the concept of just transitions has evolved considerably over the last two decades. What was generally addressed in academic research in a technocratic way, with a primary focus on job replacement and the costs thereof, has given way to broader societal thinking around the need to address injustice in legacy energy systems. Research produced by advocacy organizations and the lay-press has been especially practical with respect to policy recommendations; yet, the social-economic interactions of fossil energy in specific communities are not well studied or understood. Thus, when legacy fossil communities are disrupted as part of the energy transition, society lacks the understanding necessary for immediate, effective policy decisions about how to best respond. Here, we argue that further tools based in inter-disciplinary science, social science, and humanities approaches need to be adopted to evaluate communities' experiences with transitions and to better design and implement policy and regulation.