The Times of a Just Transition

Exploring the role of temporal frames in enabling and impeding democratic and equitable transitions towards sustainable futures
Project status
Ongoing
Departments
International

About the programme

This programme brings together scholars from six continents and 14 disciplines to transform our understanding of the role of time and timing in producing justice and injustice in sustainability transitions.

Working in highly diverse local sustainability struggles relating to land, cities, identities and the imagination - we explore how temporal frames and narratives are being (mis)used to define climate problems and solutions, how timing mechanisms prioritise, coordinate and exclude different actors and ways of life, how different rhythms of life are being aligned or alienated, and how uses of time as a form of invisible power are structuring the possibilities for justice for communities in the Global South and marginalised North.

Increased awareness and understanding of these timing mechanisms will expand our political and civic capacities to detect sources of misalignment and miscommunication, lay new foundations for dialogue across difference, and open-up the possibility of a pluriversal politics.

Follow @BATimeTransitio for updates from the programme.

See the programme members.

Programme publications

See the final group programme outputs that were funded by the British Academy, under the Global Convening Programme.

Podcast series

Podcast

Episode 1 - Keri Facer, Michel Alhadeff Jones: Rethinking the Times and Rhythms of Just Transition

Michel and Keri introduce The Temporal Imagination podcast and explore how ‘temporal imagination’ and ‘rhythmic intelligence’ offer new ways of making sense of the world.

Podcast

Episode 2 - Arturo Escobar: Beyond Development, Pluriversal Temporalities

Arturo Escobar - the grandfather of modern critiques of development theory and originator of the idea of pluriversal design - talks with Keri and Michel about the danger of allowing one time story to dominate.

Podcast

Episode 3 - Michelle Bastian : The power of clocks and calendars

Michelle Bastian, a leading scholar in the field of critical time studies, reflects with Michel and Keri on how timekeeping plays a critical role in the way we think and act in relation to environmental issues.

Podcast

Episode 4 - Andy Hom & Nomi Claire Lazar: Time Talk, Narrative and the end of the world

Michel and Keri discuss with Nomi Claire Lazar and Andy Hom, two leading scholars in political science, the relations between our experience of time, identity, political beliefs and extremism.

Podcast

Episode 5 - Peter de Souza, Harriet Hand, Miriam Jensen: The Times of Water

Keri and Michel explore the role of time in conflicts over water and rivers in Goa, the Netherlands and the UK with political scientist Peter De Souza, artist-researcher Harriet Hand and scholar-activist Miriam Jensen.  

Podcast

Episode 6 - Zarina Patel, Bronwen Morgan: The Rhythms of the City

Michel and Keri talk about the reorganisation of everyday rhythms of the city with urban scholar Zarina Patel and legal scholar Bronwen Morgan, touching on their work in Cape Town and Sydney.

Podcast

Episode 7 - Frida Buhre, Matthew Scobie, Catherine Dussault: Indigenous Times and Temporalities

Keri and Michel talk about Indigenous temporalities and the case for ‘Time Back’ with scholars Frida Buhre, Catherine Dussault and Matthew Scobie.

Podcast

Episode 8 - Rukmini Nair and Nomusa Makhubu: Time and the Arts, Food and Colonialism

Keri and Michel talk to artist-scholars, the poet Rukmini Nair and the photographer Nomusa Makhubu about the relationship between time, art and coloniality.

Podcast

Episode 11 - Daniel Barber, Johannes Stripple: Imagining and Embodying Low Carbon Futures

Keri and Michel are talking with historian of architecture Daniel Barber and Political Scientist and speculative world creator Johannes Stripple about the different ways we imagine a low-carbon future after fossil fuels, in particular, how we reimagine the relationships we have with the built environment.

Publications (individual research)

Programme members

Keri Facer, University of Bristol

Nomi Claire Lazar, University of Ottawa

Andrew Hom, University of Edinburgh

Arturo Escobar, FUNDAEC, Colombia

Astrid Ulloa, Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Bronwen Morgan, UNSW Sydney

Daniel Barber, University of Technology, Sydney

Heila Lotz-Sisitka, Rhodes University

Frida Buhre, Uppsala University

Johannes Stripple, Lund University

Michel Alhadeff-Jones, Director Sunkhronos Institute

Michelle Bastian, Senior Lecturer (Edinburgh)& Associate Professor (Oslo)

Nomusa Makhubu, University of Cape Town

Peter De Souza, DD Kosambi Visiting Professor University of Goa

Rukmini Bhaya Nair, Honorary Professor of Linguistics and English IIT Delhi

Zarina Patel, University of Cape Town

Matthew Scobie, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

Ruth Ogden, Liverpool John Moore University

Catherine Dussault, University of Ottawa

Alison Oldfield, University of Bristol

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