Reframing Energy Justice in Urban Transitions

Urban energy transitions are increasingly institutionalised through experimental planning formats such as Positive Energy Districts (PEDs), yet their justice implications remain insufficiently theorised. This presentation asks: how is energy justice produced, negotiated, and constrained within planning practices across different scales of urban energy transitions? It advances a critical energy justice perspective by mobilising Nancy Fraser’s framework of redistribution, recognition, and representation, in dialogue with a relational understanding of planning. Justice is conceptualised not as an external evaluative criterion but as a contested process through which heterogeneous claims – grounded in different normative and epistemic “idioms” of justice – are made commensurable in practice.

Empirically, the paper examines the Copenhagen case developed within the KINETIC project, focusing on district heating optimisation and the emergence of “heating communities” as sites of co-creation. While these initiatives create important spaces for participation and local experimentation, positioning Denmark as a frontrunner in sustainable energy transitions, a closer analysis reveals more ambivalent dynamics. Redistribution remains conditioned by entrenched infrastructural systems and tariff regimes; recognition is often uneven, privileging technical and institutional expertise over everyday practices and situated knowledge; and representation is bounded by predefined governance scales, limiting who can meaningfully participate in shaping energy futures. Participation is frequently organised at the local scale, while key decisions shaping distribution and system design remain anchored elsewhere – an instance of what Fraser conceptualises as misframing.

By foregrounding these tensions, the presentation conceptualises planning as a contested arena in which energy justice is negotiated across scales and between competing idioms of justice. It argues for a shift beyond technocratic and consensus-oriented transition models towards reflexive, practice-based approaches that more explicitly confront the structural conditions through which just urban energy futures are both enabled and constrained.

The seminar series is organized by the Section Economics of Wageningen University (consisting of the groups Agricultural Economics and Rural Policy, Development Economics, Urban Economics, Environmental Economics and Natural Resources, and Economic and Environmental History).

The seminar is aiming to foster the exchange on recent topics in the field of economics. We consider contributions from all fields of economic research and invite speakers from Wageningen, the Netherlands and abroad.

The seminar is organized as a weekly lunch seminar taking place on campus. Meetings are between 12:00 and 13:00 hours. Lunch is served. 

All staff and students are welcome!