The global energy transition is an urgent challenge driven by the need to combat climate change and meet the growing energy demands of an expanding population. As existing energy systems rely heavily on fossil fuels, a rapid shift toward cleaner, more sustainable alternatives is essential. Energy justice ensures that the benefits and burdens of this transition are distributed equitably. However, in the Global South, historical exploitation, economic constraints, and systemic inequalities worsen vulnerability to climate change and hinder progress toward sustainable energy solutions. Much of the current energy justice literature is Western-centric, often overlooking the Global South and focusing on a narrow definition of the concept. Furthermore, while existing studies often concentrate on qualitative analysis, quantitative measures of energy justice are underdeveloped. A robust methodology to quantify inclusive energy justice is essential, as the lack of such an index can hinder effective policy-making for equitable transitions. This thesis employs a mixed-methods approach, combining exploratory research with empirical data from a case study in South Africa, to develop new theoretical insights and a methodology for creating an energy justice index that integrates restorative justice into existing frameworks.

The research begins with a comprehensive review of existing knowledge, including theoretical frameworks and key principles to establish a foundation for further exploration of energy justice. This review focuses on the current state of energy justice, and critically examines the traditional three-tenet framework of distributional, procedural and recognition justice, as well as key decision-making principles. Recent critiques reveal that these frameworks are often too narrow, generalised, human- centred, and Western-centric. In response, this research integrates restorative justice as a key component, focusing on addressing past harms and preventing future damage to individuals, communities, and the environment as a whole. An ethical analysis using both Western and non-Western perspectives has been conducted to develop a more inclusive and diverse framework for energy justice. This approach offers a more holistic view of global ethical values in energy justice by combining the focus on individual rights from Western liberalism with the communitarian and relational values from non-Western philosophies.

In the second research phase, the study examined institutional frameworks and governance structures essential for implementing and scaling up sustainable energy in the Global South. With the ethical dimensions of energy justice thoroughly explored from the first research phase, this part transitions to a practical examination of how these frameworks and structures can support an equitable energy transition. Using the Original Institutional Economics (OIE) approach, this research highlights that achieving a just energy transition requires more than just technological innovation; it requires transformative shifts in institutional structures and cultural norms. The OIE framework provides valuable insights into how values embedded within social, political, economic, and cultural contexts impact the effectiveness of energy transition strategies. Additionally, the study integrates the Williamson framework, incorporating universal human rights law as a key layer. Recognised by international and national courts, this legal foundation strengthens the understanding of how governance structures in the Global South can support justice principles within energy governance...

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This project aims to identify how to improve the inclusion of social values within the decision-making process of the city management department of the municipality of Rotterdam. The project was conducted in collaboration with the municipality and, specifically, their value wheel development team. The "value wheel" is a value-based decision-making tool, which aims for projects to be selected based on total value contributions instead of financial risks. The idea behind this model is that all values are considered on an equal basis within the decision-making process of asset management. The issue, however, is that the development team is still unable to quantify social impact, which makes that the value wheel model cannot consider social values at an equal rate as the other values of the value wheel.

Although the model is already being put into practice, social values still find no place within the decision-making process. The Rotterdam municipality currently does not have another established method to address social values, which makes that within the organisation, social values are often overlooked or misinterpreted. The literature indicates that various social impact measurement models exist. However, they all require a list of social value indicators designed for the context in which the models operate. This means for them to be used within the value wheel framework, social value considerations and indicators are required. Through participatory observations and interviews, officials of the municipality were asked to identify the social values present within the municipality. To include the value considerations of citizens, a text-mining model, which is trained to identify values, was applied to the complaint database of the municipality.

Next to the identification of social values did the project also explore possible barriers to the inclusion of a value-based framework within the municipality. Which is why the participatory sessions and the interviews were also used to identify the context in which the value wheel is intended to be implemented. To identify the issues of the value wheel framework itself, the sessions of the value development team were followed closely and a pilot case of the value wheel was attended.

Coding was applied on the collected dataset due to the various types of data collected. This resulted in the identification of eight main themes influencing the inclusion of social values within the decision-making process. These themes are: social values experienced by officials, social values experienced by the public, the value wheel, civil participation, trust, compartmentalisation, leadership within the municipality and standardisation. The thematic analyses of these themes indicate that there are both theoretical restrictions and practical issues that prevent the implementation of social values.

Moreover, by placing quantified social values within a model, officials are confronted with technical quantities instead of public desires. This causes the actual value considerations to get lost within the decision-making process. Issues with trust, participation, leadership, and compartmentalisation show that officials are already faced with a growing gap between the reality on the streets and the situation as officials perceive it in the office. Quantifying social values within a model only strengthens this gap, instead of ensuring that actual social value considerations are included.

The results of this project can help municipalities, but also other governmental bodies, to identify the restrictions that currently prevent social value considerations from being included in the decision-making process. With that information, steps can be taken to improve the inclusion and consideration of social values when new projects are developed.
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Emotions and moral values have gained attention in recent researches in philosophy and ethics of engineering. This is due to its usefulness in assessing the technological risks imposed towards its user or society. Furthermore, moral emotions assist in reflection of moral values and research stress upon involving emotions in design practices. Moreover, researchers argue that engineers are the people who spend the most time with the development of technology. Thus, they must consider their emotions to influence moral values to mitigate risks that are associated with the technology. However, to what extent this prevails among engineers was not clear. Thus, through the use of semi-structured interviews with software engineers, this exploratory research shows the underwhelming role of moral emotions among engineers. The findings also showcase the perception of software engineers towards the involvement of moral values as something insignificant in the design practices. Lastly, this research recommends acknowledging the emotional responses of engineers by the management, training engineers as virtue ethicists and encouraging imaginative capacities and drawing attention to values for engineers during engineering design phases. ... Read more