North-South Versus Centre-Periphery

During her fellowship, Lehnen aims to look beyond the boundaries of her own discipline and, alongside the anthropological perspective, to consider current upheavals through the lenses of political science and the natural sciences. “Disciplinary divisions can no longer do justice to the complexity and crises we are facing," says Lehnen. “We can’t capture the multiple demands of the present using only the social sciences – nor can we do so with the natural sciences alone.”

Concept of a Just Transition

The concept of a Just Transition refers to a socially equitable shift from fossil fuel-based industries to more sustainable forms of economic activity. In the context of the European Green Deal, for instance, the European Union has established a Just Transition Mechanism that allocates financial resources to support structurally weak regions undergoing this transformation. This includes, for example, providing retraining opportunities for workers in the fossil fuel sector—similar to the support offered in coal-mining regions. Financial support of this kind is crucial—just as strong trade unions are. But in many parts of the Global South, neither exists in the same form. “Where is a country like Ecuador supposed to get the money for this?” asks Lehnen. In her view, it’s simply not possible, as government budgets are constrained by debt structures.

“There is simply no financial room for manoeuvre,” she says. There is also a different relationship between the state and society. “Countries like Ecuador are shaped by their colonial past, which has led to a fundamentally different kind of social contract. That’s why you can’t simply apply the same models to countries in the Global South,” Lehnen argues. At the same time, this raises an urgent question: What would a Just Transition look like in that context? And what would it mean for the Global South? Lehnen is particularly interested in the various discourses on a just transition: “The Ecuadorian state and industry are declaring ‘We have extracted crude oil, but are now switching to the extraction of the critical raw material copper, because it is needed for e-mobility, for example’. This shift is criticised by the green extractivism theory because it is actually exactly the same as before, only in the supposedly ‘green’.”

Exploring alternative pathways

The other discourse centres more on socio-ecological transformation—on exploring what alternative pathways might exist in a country like Ecuador. “Indigenous concepts, such as the good life or the rights of nature, but also democratic mechanisms such as referendums, are incorporated. For example, I looked at two referendums against mining and oil production from this perspective for my Master's thesis.” Lehnen uses the lens of Just Transition to analyse the debate between these discourses – “to critically examine their underlying Eurocentric assumptions,” says the young researcher.

She is currently grappling with the so-called North–South binary. “I’m not sure it still makes sense to focus so heavily on the Global South,” she says, “especially as raw materials for the energy transition are increasingly being extracted in rural areas of Serbia, Spain, and Portugal—in other words, in Europe’s own peripheral regions. So maybe it’s more accurate to talk about centre–periphery dynamics?” This is a question she hopes to explore further in her doctoral research.

“It’s not about stopping raw material extraction altogether,” the researcher explains. “Materials like copper will still need to be mined to some extent for decarbonisation and the energy transition.” The real questions, she argues, are how they are mined, where, under what conditions, according to which standards—and, above all, in what quantities. These issues are also being addressed within alternative approaches to the concept of Just Transition.