µÚÒ»³Ô¹ÏÍø

Beyond the reform vs radical rupture binary

The Everything Everywhere All at Once Project, led by the Political Studies Department is excited to present its Semester 2 events line up.

The crisis of the just energy transition in South Africa: Beyond the reform vs radical rupture binary

Alex Beresford & Ruth Bookbinder (Leeds)

We analyse the politics of the just transition (JT) in South Africa, situating current impasses within the deeper contradictions of post‑apartheid transformation. Dominant JT debates often frame labour agency as torn between reformist, worker‑protective demands and more radical social‑ecological transformation. Drawing on interviews with policymakers, climate NGOs and trade‑union leaders, alongside focus groups with workers in affected sectors, we challenge portrayals of fossil‑sector unions as inherently obstructionist or defenders of the status quo. By re‑centring workers’ and unions’ perspectives within decarbonisation processes, we show how and why climate delay is strategically justified as a means of managing structural insecurity. Productive delay in climate action can create political space to negotiate how immediate reformist goals—jobs, training, health and energy security—might be pursued alongside, and through, demands for transformative and globally just transitions.

Add event to calendar