Contesting "Just" Transitions in South Africa
| Dates: | 27 March 2025 |
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| Times: | 15:30 - 17:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | Global Development Institute |
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| Who is it for: | University staff, External researchers, Alumni, Current University students |
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Politics, Governance, and Management research seminar
Speakers:
Alex Beresford (University of Leeds)
Ruth Bookbinder (University of Leeds)
The Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) between South Africa and a collection of Western countries (USA, UK, France, EU and Germany) is hailed as a blueprint for energy transitions in the global south. Here, we draw on key informant interviews with leaders of the South African unions, climate-NGOs, and the Presidential Climate Commission. We also draw on collaborative fieldwork with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), including interviews with leaders and members at all levels of the NUM, as well as workshops and focus groups in Mpumalanga with those workers most immediately impacted by the energy transition. The political tensions JETP is generating are entangled in the contradictions produced by colonialism and racial capitalism, and they manifest today in the reproduction of "epistemic injustice" for those communities most vulnerable to the impacts of transition but who are unable to challenge what they see as the latest manifestation of an externally-driven, class project of violence against black South Africans. A polemical politics emerges that sees environmental and social justice as binary oppositions and in doing so endangers both.
Alex Beresford is Associate Professor in African Politics at the University of Leeds. Their research focuses on contemporary South African politics, including the challenges of populism and corruption. Alex is currently working on a project exploring just transitions from workers’ perspectives in 14 countries.
Ruth Bookbinder is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham with the Centre for Responsible Business. Her research interests includes just transitions and rent-seeking in South Africa, with a particular focus on the energy sector. She has also conducted research into transitions to tackle the climate crisis in Rwanda and the UK.
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
G.019
Arthur Lewis Building
Manchester
