Just Renewability: Contesting public deliberation in the energy transition

‘Just Renewability’ studies the democratic challenges of the energy transition. It compares three countries (Denmark, Spain, Argentina), inquiring into the conditions of public deliberation around the desired energy futures. By focusing on the hegemonic production of collectively held ideal energy futures, the project investigates how energy futures are sustained by government and corporations through the production of legislation, visions and projects, and how this is contested by a democratization of decision-making from below. Through an ethnographically grounded mixed methods approach, we map out how energy projects are framed as renewable, how the parameters constituting renewability are represented, and how civil society organizations may seek to question that boundary-making by drawing other parameters into public deliberation. Through online and physical encounters, the project creates a space for sharing experiences, nurturing a more robust and democratic energy transition.