TRANSITION TO TRANSFORMATIONS

“Tsitaat”

While ‘transition’ is an alluring term promising a more environmentally conscious future, the ‘green transition’ has faced significant hurdles in recent years. Although climate change remains a pressing global crisis, international solidarity is fraying and sustainable policies are under threat in many regions. Consequently, the ‘actually experienced’ green transition has become far less certain than the linear change of conditions the term ‘transition’ proclaims.
In this sense, the green transition mirrors other major historical shifts. For instance, following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the ‘transitologist’ discourse of the 1990s anticipated a straightforward shift from state-centred systems toward democratic, market-driven societies. However, the lived experience of post-socialism was considerably less clear-cut. Striking analogies exist between these two narratives: both are defined as large-scale, disruptive changeovers (Healy & Barry, 2017) promising a new reality—whether integration into a Western capitalist future or a sustainable, livable one.
Regarding the 1990s, anthropologists and geographers highlighted the fragmentations and hybridizations of supposedly ‘clear-cut’ shifts, which proved much messier than political elites anticipated (Verdery, 1996; Stark & Bruszt, 1998; Pickles & Unwin, 2003; Sýkora & Bouzarovski, 2012; Hann, 2012). Similar observations are increasingly valid for contemporary green transitions (White, 2025). Exploring ‘actually existing’ transformations is necessary to uncover the multiplicity of simultaneous changes and the injustices inherent in these processes.

This session views the ‘green transition’ as a complex societal transformation and invites scholars to reflect on the conflicts and contradictions of these processes as they emerge in practice. We aim to explore ‘messy realities’ through critical readings of contemporary changes, drawing inspiration from historical transformative processes across the Global North, South, and East. We welcome presentations that complicate simplistic narratives, including ethnographic or qualitative studies and conceptual discussions regarding the realities of transformations.

If you would like to be part of the session, please send an abstract of max. 250 words together with the title of your presentation, contact details and a short bio (up to 100 words) by Monday, 23 February to tauri.tuvikene@tlu.ee, slavka.ferencuhova@soc.cas.cz, tpikner@tlu.ee. The session is in-person-only.