Labour, Energy Transition, and Social Change: on Critiques of Unjust Transition in the Context of Popular Classes

This special collection entitled 'Green Transition or Social Transformation? Socio-economic Costs and Challenges of Energy Transition for Working People' is an invitation to further study the role of labour in the energy transition and the impact of the current form of transition on workers' lives. Above all, however, it raises fundamental questions about the future trajectory, aims, and scope of the transition. It also suggests that it is worth speaking openly not only about technological change but also about systemic change - one that incorporates economic and political dimensions and must accompany the energy revolution. A transition that leaves hierarchical social structures intact, that fails to critique the economic mechanisms exploiting both people and the environment, or that does not challenge existing relations of power which colonise nature and the working classes, is not a transition at all. It is merely 'old wine in new bottles,' designed to ensure the further reproduction of the prevailing system and to create new forms of capital accumulation. This collection presents reflections, analyses, and proposals addressing issues often overlooked in the green transition: the concerns of working people, their anxieties over employment and economic security, and a new form of colonisation under the guise of technological changes in the energy sector. The authors suggest, however, progressive solutions that go beyond the status quo, such as a 'transformative just transition', labour environmentalism based on the inseparable relationship between labour and nature, and social-ecological development.