School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses
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ItemA resistance-led just transition away from coal: The case of Türkiye( 2023-07)Today, the idea of just transition is increasingly important to policymakers committed to phasing out coal. This remains a particular challenge for industrialising countries, such as Turkiye, that have a political commitment to increasing coal use. Current models of how a just transition can be achieved, too, largely emanate from the global North and tend to overlook challenges posed by ensuring a just transition in countries such as Turkiye. I investigate this problem by posing my central research question: Can a just transition unfold in Turkiye? If so, how? The analytical framework of ecological distribution conflicts underpins my research that explores the relationship between conflict over natural resources and just transition. Applying a qualitative case study approach, I explore whether and how the increasing protest and unrest over coal use, crystallised as land-based struggles, can undermine coal’s legitimacy in Turkiye and provide a potential pathway for communities to achieve a just transition. My thesis suggests coal-related harms can be used as political leverage for a just transition in Turkiye. In the country, where strong policies and support for technologies and markets that might facilitate decarbonization are absent, anti-coal struggles in Turkiye have yielded positive outcomes both in terms of justice and decarbonization. My research suggests public dissent, grounded in the injustices associated with coal in Turkiye —the disruption of traditional income generation, deterioration of public health and poor working conditions in the coal sector—has contributed to delegitimising the coal-dependent regime. More broadly, land-based protests have helped shift the public narrative of coal being critical to national development towards stronger recognition of its damaging ecological and social effects. This potential pathway to a just transition can be captured by the term "resistance-led transitions" (RLT). RLT captures the potential for a just transition in countries where the predominant political and economic enabling environment is not readily visible. Yet, whilst a resistance-led transition is possible, it is not inevitable. In Turkiye, significant systemic challenges, such as political entitlement and siloing of support to particular groups (such as those with access to land for subsistence agriculture) marginalising others, such as Kurds, Alevis and refugees (particularly women), remain. Marginalised people lack political leverage, access to land and are dependent on the meagre income coal supplies. Current land-based struggles overlook their plight. To achieve a just transition any pathway, including a resistance-led transition, recognition and alleviation of the hardship experienced by these disenfranchised groups are necessary.