Justice in Critical Minerals Governance and Energy Transitions

This fellowship responds to the dearth of knowledge that leads to deep contestations over the origins, meaning and purpose of ‘justice’ in the transitions to net zero emissions. It develops a unique methodology called Hermeneutical Ethnography, defined as the collection, co-creation, and analyses of verbal and non-verbal communications, silences and voices (e.g. texts, symbols, speech) to co-create meaning for justice. The methodology offers an exchange of meaning between the producer, author or storyteller and the audience, which if holistically interpreted, allows them to share a deep sense of reality, whether fictional or factual. It enables the collection and analysis of aspirations that would otherwise be restrained in formal research designs. This FLF’s innovative methodology will capture and synthesise the ‘voices’ and ‘silences’ of people who are impacted but would otherwise not be heard in policymaking. Its premise: the impact of the extractive industry on the environment and society causes avoidable losses to biodiversity, livelihoods and socio-political order; inadequate granular data and the unsystematic consideration of local communities’ perspectives in decision-making account for the persistent grievances and violent protests that respond to these impacts.
The lack of consensus is particularly pronounced around social, environmental, and distributional justice, and has mainly occurred between governments of developed and developing countries on the one hand, and mining companies and residents of mining communities on the other. At the macro-level, this has led to developing countries such as Ghana and Barbados formulating energy transition policies that do not urgently respond to the climate crisis. At the sub-national level, grievances and protests disrupt global supply chains. For instance, a week-long community protest in 2024 led by Indigenous People and local communities (IPLC) that blocked access to salt flats in the Atacama region of Chile led...