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This article proposes the examination of the climate politics of labour unions, particularly the strategy of just transition, through the prism of environmental labour studies, an ecosocial approach to labour environmentalism. In the first part, it presents a historical overview in order to highlight how the just energy transition became a central element of labour environmentalism. The paper then examines the double impact of climate politics and just transition on labour environmentalism – narrowing its substantive focus while deepening the intersection of nature and labour within and beyond the workplace. The second part draws on the environmental labour studies approach to propose that labour environmentalism should take into account the inseparable relationship between labour and nature, expand the scope of work and workers, and account for global divisions of labour. In our view, such a programmatic shift will ensure that work and workers are placed centrally within ecosocial politics.

This article critically examines the challenges of trade union “just transition” (JT) policies in the context of the ecological crisis. While JT policies have grown in prominence, especially in the Global North, they do not adequately address the ecological crisis since they focus exclusively on decarbonisation without recognising that Green Growth, by reducing emissions increases environmental destruction created by the extraction of ever more minerals and metals. JT policies are further constrained by national boundaries and by a policy centred on jobs only, without acknowledging the broader needs for dignified lives and a regenerative relationship between labour and nature. Research into workers’ visions for the future shows that workers long for cooperation, democratisation from below, a connection of local and global solidarity, and more time to care for themselves and others. The author suggests that unions could connect with such visions to develop transformative, globally coordinated JT strategies that centre on cooperation and self-determination, allowing them to move away from growth imperatives towards a regenerative economy that centres on care for both, people and nature.

In this article we bring Environmental Labour Studies in dialog with Labour Geography in order to develop an Environmental Labour Geography. We argue that the social relations of nature and the ecological crisis are contradictory spaces co-pro-duced by labour. Using the automobile industry as an example, we propose three con-cepts to capture these labour processes: 1. alienated, spatially situated metabolisms; 2. ecological labour regimes; and 3. geographies of the metabolic rift. Based on this analysis, we argue that the labour movement needs to renew its spatial strategies to be able to fight pro-actively for socio-ecological transformation.

Every product has a life cycle that begins with the extraction of resources from nature and ends with the return of its remnants to nature. Whether a product was produced in an ecologically viable and socially just manner can only be judged based on its entire life cycle. For example, wind turbines, solar systems and electric cars require increasing amounts of minerals, causing greater destruction of nature, promoting local and global social inequalities, and creating new forms of geopolitical competition and power relations. This makes green growth a questionable idea. These are the points of departure from which the authors develop four criteria for an effective socio-ecological trade union policy.

Grundlage der folgenden Thesen sind drei Forschungsprojekte, die wir seit 2007 über die Umweltpolitik von Gewerkschaften in Brasilien, Südafrika, Indien, Schweden, dem Vereinigen Königreich (VK) und Spanien durchgeführt haben. Wir haben über 200 Interviews geführt, Dokumente studiert, Tagungen, Konferenzen und COPs besucht. In unserem noch laufenden Projekt haben wir 6 Kurse mit Gewerkschafter*innen in Spanien und im VK organisiert, in denen es darum ging, wie die Arbeitenden den ökologischen Fußabdruck ihres Arbeitsplatzes analysieren und welche Alternativen sie entwickeln.

Im Laufe der Zeit haben wir unseren Blick erweitert auf andere Kategorien von Arbeitenden. Für viele indigene Völker und für Subsistenzarbeitende ist die Klimakrise schon jetzt eine Frage von Leben und Tod. Für die Arbeitenden in den Industrieländern geht es darum, eine Klimapolitik zu entwickeln, die den Lebensstandard hält und ‚gute Arbeit‘ garantiert. Der von der US- amerikanischen Arbeiterbewegung geprägte Begriff der Just Transition (gerechter Übergang) ist dabei Allgemeingut geworden, besonders, seit er 2015 in die Präambel des Pariser Abkommens übernommen wurde. In Deutschland spricht man von der Transformation, oder der sozio-ökologischen/sozialökologischen Transformation. Es geht jeweils darum, die Bekämpfung des Klimawandels mit den Bedürfnissen der Arbeitenden in Einklang zu bringen. Aber worum geht es beim Klimawandel und was sind die Bedürfnisse der Arbeitenden?

Ich beginne die Frage nach den Bedürfnissen der Arbeitenden mit einem Blick in die Geschichte, die, so William Faulkner, nicht tot, ja nicht einmal Geschichte ist.[1] Daraus ergeben sich drei Thesen, die ich zur Diskussion stellen möchte. 1. Die gewerkschaftliche Klimapolitik leidet unter zwei Verengungen: sie reduziert die ökologische Krise auf Treibhausgasemissionen und auf den nationalen Kontext. 2. Die Struktur der Politik konstruiert die Arbeitenden als Opfer, sieht sie nicht als Handelnde. 3. Die Bedürfnisse der Arbeitenden werden auf ihre Interessen auf Lohnarbeiter*innen reduziert, es fehlen ihre umfassenderen Bedürfnisse nach einem sinnvollen Leben.

The translation of Familiar Stranger by Stuart Hall into German was a particular challenge, especially with regard to the concept of race. Hall uses the term ‘race’ to fan out the countless cultural meanings, which are not covered by a homogeneous theoretical conception of race. The result is the ambivalent articulation of race–as well as of colour–which unites racist as well as emancipatory meanings in the same term. This ambivalent chain of meanings has no equivalent in the German language, as the conceptual history of race cannot be detached from the context of German fascism, either theoretically or in everyday language. Another requirement was the translation of gender, not because Hall problematizes this, but because the German language is a deeply rooted genus-typifying language. With some examples of translation, we want to show how we have tried, to consciously act in the space of the displacement of culture, to recognize the specific situatedness of the heterogeneous representations that Hall talks about in Familiar Stranger, and not to unify them in favour of a homogeneous German textuality.

In this chapter the authors analyse different forms of gender and class discrimination in Spanish academic institutions. Androcentrism in terms of the structures of academic institutions, the meritocratic system, the rhythms and contents of work present barriers for women advancing into positions of leadership. The intersectionality of gender and class provides different kinds of hurdles and possibilities for women and men from middle-class and working-class backgrounds. Relationships between (mostly male) supervisors and men and women researchers tend to strengthen men's capabilities of developing their own scientific aspirations and claims to leadership, while women tend to become subordinated supporters of their supervisors' objectives. Power structures dominated by men's values have the effect that some women do not perceive leadership positions as desirable.