Challenges in research approaches to the ‘just energy transition’ in legal studies and other branches of the social sciences

Abstract

The ‘just energy transition’ (JET) is a concept that is starting to pervade climate and energy scholarship to a greater and greater degree at present. It is often difficult, however, to interpret clearly and precisely what this increasingly common term is intended to mean. This study explores the JET as a scholarly concept and as a compound discursive term, identifying problems that arise in research and scholarship where semantic and associated analytical precision is lacking or unclear. Such problems include the disruption of the ability to construct scholarly hypotheses and theories that allow testable propositions to be utilized with reference to the term. The study argues that these outcomes should be guarded against in legal studies, and in any branch of the social sciences that seeks to integrate JET considerations meaningfully into serious research. It is also argued that elements of the sorts of difficulties under review in relation to the JET exist in a more developed condition within the field of Energy Justice (EJ). The study draws upon the juxtaposition of JET–EJ scholarship in order to throw into relief a range of issues that JET studies should guard against.