Governing the just transition: The reach and limits of anchor-led place-based governance

Abstract

This article examines what forms of governance can enable a just and scalable green transition at the local level. While place-based approaches centred on anchor institutions are often promoted as vehicles for equitable and community-led transitions, their effectiveness is shaped by broader multiscalar governance relations. The article develops a conceptual framework that integrates distributive, procedural, and restorative dimensions of climate justice within a multiscalar governance perspective, highlighting how transition governance unfolds across scale and time. Drawing on 26 interviews with officials from London local authorities, the article shows that while local authorities have emerged as key anchor institutions in transition governance – leading by example, influencing public and private sector behaviour, and fostering community buy-in – their ability to advance just transitions beyond their immediate locality is limited by higher-level governance processes. Austerity-driven reductions in public sector capacity, competitive funding structures, and the lack of clear national policy guidance have created a fragmented and uneven landscape of climate action, reinforcing spatial disparities across localities. It concludes that anchor-led place-based governance requires procedural, redistributive and restorative mechanisms embedded across scales of governance. The findings advance debates on transition governance, the “local trap,” and climate justice by clarifying how place-based transitions depend on multiscalar, redistributive governance architectures.