Spatial and place dynamics of labour in extractive industries: challenges for just transitions

Erik Kojola

Chapter 34 in Handbook of Labour Geography, 2025, pp 555-567 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Averting the worst of the climate crisis requires restructuring the economy and energy system. But this restructuring will have uneven spatial impacts upon workers and communities in fossil fuel and extractive industries. Consequently, labour and other social movements are calling for a just transition that protects displaced workers. However, some workers and unions that these policies are intended to assist have opposed them. Two sets of concerns seem to dominate. First, industry closures can threaten workers’ and residents’ sense of place and way of life. Second, extractive regions are often remote and lack infrastructure which creates spatial challenges for just transitions. A Labour Geography framework provides insights into the cultural and political-economic processes that shape these workers’ hostilities, particularly ties between labour and place and the spatial dynamics of resource extraction. Addressing these cultural meanings and spatial issues is necessary for building union support to create the diverse movements needed for eco-social transformations.

Keywords: Just transition; Climate justice; Labour; Unions; Environmentalism; Place (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781785363399
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