Call for the Dossier "Energy transition, territories and socio-environmental justice"

Call for the Dossier

The so-called energy transition has been widely mobilized in the contemporary debate about climate change, sustainable development and restructuring of production systems. Often presented as a path associated with the mitigation of the environmental crisis, the expansion of so-called renewable energies - such as wind, solar and biomass - has been the subject of critical research that has shown that such processes are not exempt from social conflicts, inequalities and profound socio-environmental impacts.

In this context, many researchers have problematized the energy transition in Brazil, especially in the Northeast. These researchers question the automatic equivalence between renewable energy and clean energy, revealing how the implementation of large-scale energy projects can reproduce exclusionary development models, promote Intensify socio-environmental vulnerabilities and silence local communities, such as artisanal fishermen, family farmers, traditional peoples and coastal populations.

Inspired by this critical approach, this dossier proposes to bring together works that analyze the energy transition from an interdisciplinary, critical and situated perspective, emphasizing the relationships between energy, territory, power, environmental justice and social participation. It seeks to contribute to the academic and political debate on the limits and possibilities of an energy transition that is, in fact, socially fair and environmentally responsible.

Contributions that address one or more of the following themes are welcome:

- Criticism of the notion of "clean energy" and the hegemonic speeches of the energy transition;

- Energy transition and energy justice/socio-environmental justice;

- Social, environmental and territorial impacts of wind, solar and other renewable energy sources;

- Socio-environmental conflicts associated with large energy projects;

- Energy, territory and processes of deterritorialization and reconfiguration of land use;

- Collective action of social movements, community resistance and forms of mobilization social face to energy projects, particularly the wind and solar complexes.

- Critical methodologies and research engaged in studies on energy and territory.

Submissions - in Portuguese, Spanish, French or English - can be submitted until 30 April 2026, by the magazine’s platform:
https://periodicos.ufrn.br/cronos/about/submissions

Submissions will go through a double-blind peer review process and must follow strictly in the standards of Cronos.