Abstract

The continual restructuring of energy systems, around the world, has generated widespread inequities—manifest as profound inequalities and hardship—across the energy continuum. These inequities include: energy unaffordability; access barriers like price or artefacts to utilise the services provided by energy for work and social practices; ‘sacrifice zones’ for new production sites with health, quality of life, and mortality impacts; and, diminished or absent participatory opportunity in production and regulatory decision-making. Fundamental to reaching solutions for the eradication of energy injustices, an exposition is required, we suggest, of the relationships between energy (in)justice, social justice, and inequality. To this end, we investigate two approaches to understanding injustice and inequality—Nancy Fraser’s meta-(in)justice and Stratification Economics. We conclude that the social stratification exhibited through energy injustices, beyond the economic domain, demands solutions that do not replicate the contemporary neoliberal model privileging the private (economic) spheres of power in our societies.

摘要

世界各地能源系统的持续重组在整个能源连续体中产生了广泛的不平等——表现为严重的不平等和困难。这些不公平现象包括：获取障碍，如价格或人工制品，以利用能源提供的服务进行工作和社会实践；对健康、生活质量和死亡率有影响的新生产场所的“牺牲区”；减少或没有参与生产和监管决策的机会。我们建议，要找到根除能源不公正的解决方案，就需要对能源（不）公正、社会公正和不平等之间的关系进行阐述。为此，我们研究了两种理解不公正和不平等的方法——南希弗雷泽的元（不）公正和分层经济学。我们的结论是，通过能源不公正表现出的社会分层超出了经济领域，需要的解决方案不能复制当代新自由主义模式，使我们社会中的私人（经济）权力领域享有特权。