Building a World-ship

A decolonial approach to just energy transitions

Bibliographic Data

ID12979040
AuthorsRebeca Roysen (0000-0003-4368-9218, University of Basel, corresponding author), Guilherme Moura Fagundes (0000-0003-2510-0465, Universidade de São Paulo), Lasse Kos (0000-0002-1647-1777, University of Basel), Nadine Bruehwiler (0000-0002-7508-7679, University of Basel), Jens Koehrsen (0000-0002-0191-9671, University of Basel)
Year2025
Volume18
Issue2
Pages213-228
Publication date2025-03-19
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHuman Geography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1942-7786 • E-ISSN: 2633-674X
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/19427786251326605
OpenAlexW4408613458
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited54

This article contributes to discussions on just energy transitions by analyzing a community project in the slums of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Instituto Favela da Paz (IFDP) is an urban ecovillage created by slum-dwellers who develop projects and courses on renewable energies, urban permaculture, healthy food, and arts. We draw upon decolonial ecology framework (DEF) developed by Caribbean scholar Malcom Ferdinand to analyze their innovations. Based on participatory network mapping, participant observations, interviews, and focus groups, we address the following research questions: In what ways does IFDP promote just energy transitions? And how can the DEF help us understand these types of grassroots innovations that are emerging in the peripheries of the Global South? Instituto Favela da Paz promotes just energy transitions through the dissemination and democratization of renewable technologies, and by reframing narratives that keep in place the exploitation of cheap labor, especially from racialized groups. Instituto Favela da Paz and its partners engage in activities that reframe meanings associated with time, energy, money, and Black identity through their practices of aquilombamento. We conclude that the DEF enriches the theoretical tools available to analyze just energy transitions by bringing to the forefront the exploitation of human body energy—be it in the form of slavery, cheap labor, or gender inequality—that maintains unsustainable ways of inhabiting the Earth. It also helps to identify the emergence of alternative ways of living that contribute to the creation of a more just and shared world

Aeronautics · Architectural engineering · Energy (signal processing · Marine engineering · Physics · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Computer Science · Engineering · International Development and Aid · Water Governance and Infrastructure

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