Open Seminar Series: Reaching for Just Transition

The cascading and interlaced effects of COVID-19, climate change, systemic racism, and dramatic inequity within and between countries are now in high relief. The Reaching for Just Transition Seminar Series brings people together to build understanding of the problems that need to be addressed, to develop ways of thinking and speaking about related injustices, and to strategize what needs to be done going forward.

Labor organizers began speaking in terms of “just transition” in the 1980s, reaching for ways around claims that people had to choose between good jobs and environmental protection. Today, there is accelerating recognition that investment in both environmental protection and new ways of organizing the economy will be critical to inclusive prosperity. Renewed calls for just transition speak to this. During the events, p anelists and seminar participants will address four questions:

• What forms of injustice do you see in this case?

• What do you think should be done in response to the injustices in this case (beyond what may seem achievable in practice)?

• What organizational, political, and legal strategies do you think should be prioritized – within countries, and across borders?

• What ideas do you have for sustaining and continuing to build the collective of people brought together here to work toward just transitions?

Much work remains to be done to figure out what just transition looks like on the ground, in different settings. Join us for dialogue with labor and community organizers, researchers, clergy, and others reaching for this.

Lead organizers: Tim Schütz  ( tschuetz@uci.edu ) Kim Fortun ( kfortun@uci.edu ).