What we do

Just Transitions Action [JusTA] is a PhD research lab that examines place-based behavioural, socio-cultural, and political factors driving competing claims as well as visions for more sustainable and resilient urban futures. Our research spans several topical areas of relevance to urban policy and governance, exploring both human and non-human relations associated with the social, economic and environmental challenges facing cities globally.

The lab draws inspiration from notable works like Justice and the Politics of Difference (Young), which raise fundamental questions concerning how we might bring the global discourses of meta-narratives like The Anthropocene in line with the experiences of communities of the poor or indigenous peoples.

This and other similar works like ‘The Rise of Cheap Nature’ (Moore), offer a politics of the possible, of hope. They challenge consensual discourses of Humanity-Nature interactions that often preclude alternative ways of knowing and/or doing research on place making and its relations with inequality, power, wealth, and work.

As such, JusTA seeks to cultivate an appreciation for emerging practices that provide insights on ontologies of becoming, with the potential to disrupt cognitive fixations in ongoing research (Nunes and Fielmua). Works like ‘Pluriversal Politics’ (Escobar) and ‘Against the Anthropocene’ (Demos) are some of the more notable texts in this regard.

These and other works draw attention to “liminal transition spaces” (Burnett and Nunes), or more specifically the everyday discursive practices and strategic actions that are positioned at the thresholds between previous ways of doing/knowing and newly emerging political (re) presentations of desirable socio-ecological futures. Narrating institutional change with such an appreciation embraces the lack of any ground rules dictating socio-political norms, whereby collaborative actions are potentially working at cross-purposes and/or multiple forms of (transformative) power are exercised simultaneously as prospects for new ‘transition destinations’ materialise.

Nunes, R. and Fielmua, N. (2022). Institutional bricolage in community-based water management: Some insights from non-representational theory. International Journal of Water Resources Development (In Press).

Burnett, A. and Nunes, R., 2021. Flatpack democracy: Power and politics at the boundaries of transition. Environmental Policy and Governance, 31(3), pp.223-236.

Go to the Published Works tab for a list of our PhD Lab research papers.