‘Agents of Justice’ and Opportunity Spaces

An analysis of energy transitions in Hamburg and Mumbai

Abstract

Energy justice is essential for ensuring just and equitable transitions, yet justice remains contested and perpetually negotiated within complex socio-political environments. While sociotechnical transitions literature often relies on static accounts of agency, regional development perspectives on structural transformation fall short in explicitly accounting for justice outcomes. We contribute to these scholarships by theorizing how justice outcomes are shaped through dynamic agentic processes on temporal and spatial dimensions. We propose a theoretical framework that conceptualizes Justice Claims (JCs) as discursive devices that distill and align fluid, multi-level storylines to mediate the co-evolution of local opportunity spaces (OS) and multi-scalar human agency.

We operationalize this framework through an empirical analysis of two striking grassroots mobilisations: energy grid remunicipalization in Hamburg, Germany, and slum electrification in Mumbai, India. We demonstrate that while human agency is inherently asymmetrical within transition governance, under-resourced grassroots actors leverage JCs to mobilise collective agency - rendering themselves as legitimate ‘agents of justice’ capable of reshaping the parameters of the local OS. In Hamburg, activists braided macro-level Energiewende discourses with local "Right to the City" storylines to expand the local OS and legally mandate grid buybacks. In Mumbai, slum residents hijacked top-down universal service obligations and privatisation mandates to force formal grid access within a splintered utility landscape. our findings demonstrate that initial structural gains do not automatically dissolve agentic asymmetries; sustained place-based leadership and the progressive institutionalization of decentralized deliberative spaces are required to permanently translate normative JCs into durable policy and infrastructure mandates.