Virtual Forum: Beyond Green Colonialism? Rethinking Power and Justice in Energy Transitions

CALL FOR PAPERS

Virtual Forum: Beyond Green Colonialism? Rethinking Power and Justice in Energy Transitions

Journal: Political Geography

Publisher: Elsevier

Submission Deadline: 31 December 2026

Introduction

The worldwide rush to decarbonize and secure a more "sustainable" energy future has generated a new scramble for resources. These processes reproduce familiar patterns of dispossession and uneven exchange — which many scholars describe in terms of coloniality and colonialism. Yet some have argued that these terms have been conceptually overstretched.

This Virtual Forum thus invites critical reflections on the evolving meanings and uses of colonialism and coloniality in the context of energy transitions — asking: when and how do these terms clarify, or obscure, power dynamics and logics?

The forum addresses tensions around conceptualizations of power, justice, and inequality in the era of "green" energy transitions — bringing together scholarship that interrogates who benefits and who bears the costs of the global decarbonization agenda.

Scope & Significance

This Virtual Forum provides a critical and open platform for geographers, political ecologists, and interdisciplinary scholars to examine the political dimensions of green energy transitions. It seeks to generate rigorous, theoretically informed, and empirically grounded debate on the spatial, social, and political consequences of decarbonization — with particular attention to questions of justice, equity, and postcolonial critique.

List of Topic Areas

Manuscripts are invited on themes including, but not limited to:

1. Conceptual debates on green colonialism and coloniality in energy transitions

2. Resource extraction and dispossession in the global energy transition

3. Uneven exchange and North-South dynamics in decarbonization pathways

4. Energy justice — distributional, procedural, and recognition dimensions

5. Wind, solar, and critical mineral extraction in postcolonial contexts

6. Counter-mapping and participatory approaches to energy governance

7. Climate finance, adaptation, and power asymmetries between nations

8. Feminist and postcolonial science studies perspectives on green transitions

9. Political ecology of renewable energy infrastructure and land use

10. Indigenous and community rights in green energy development

11. Carbon markets, offsetting, and green colonialism critiques

12. Water-energy-land nexus in sustainability transitions

13. Spatial justice and the geography of green energy siting

14. Critical theory perspectives on sustainability and nature

15. State power, corporate actors, and governance in energy transitions

16. Resistance, mobilization, and social movements against green extractivism

Guest Editors

Ms. Johanna Tunn (Contact for Topic Inquiries) University of Vienna, Austria Areas of expertise: Political ecology, climate justice, climate finance and adaptation, postcolonial and feminist science studies, energy transition Email: Johanna.tunn@univie.ac.at

Dr. Adryane Gorayeb Federal University of Ceará, Fortaleza, Brazil Areas of expertise: Counter-mapping, participatory mapping, energy justice, wind energy, political ecology, energy geography

Dr. Filippo Menga University of Bergamo, Italy Areas of expertise: Political geography, critical theory, sustainability, nature, water

Key Deadlines

Manuscript Submission Deadline: 31 December 2026 (Authors may submit at any time before the deadline)

Submission Guidelines

Submit your manuscript via Editorial Manager, the official online submission system for Political Geography. When submitting, select Article Type:

"VSI: Beyond Green Colonialism"

All submissions deemed suitable will be reviewed by at least two independent reviewers. Upon editorial acceptance, articles will be published in the latest regular issue and simultaneously presented on the Special Issue webpage.

For any inquiries about the appropriateness of contribution topics, contact Ms. Johanna Tunn at Johanna.tunn@univie.ac.at.

Both the Guide for Authors and the submission portal can be found at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/political-geography

All submissions must be original and must not be under review elsewhere at the time of submission.

About the Journal

Political Geography, published by Elsevier, is a leading international peer-reviewed journal with a CiteScore of 7.2 and Impact Factor of 4.9. It supports open access publishing and is dedicated to advancing research on the politics of space, place, and territory — providing a global platform for interdisciplinary scholarship exploring geopolitics, political ecology, spatial justice, borders, governance, and the political dimensions of environmental and social change worldwide.

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