Out of place, scale and time? Navigating injustices across mission arenas of the German Energiewende

Review (2025)
Author(s)

M.J. Wiarda (TU Delft - Economics of Technology and Innovation, TU Delft - Values Technology and Innovation, Eindhoven University of Technology)

Elisa Rodríguez-Gironés (Student TU Delft, Eindhoven University of Technology)

N. Doorn (TU Delft - Values Technology and Innovation)

Research Group
Economics of Technology and Innovation
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2025.104422
More Info
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Publication Year
2025
Language
English
Research Group
Economics of Technology and Innovation
Volume number
130
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Abstract

The uptake of transformative mission-oriented innovation policies has coincided with explicit calls to better understand their justice implications. Our qualitative meta-analysis addresses this ‘justice deficit’ by identifying, synthesizing, and reinterpreting empirical findings of 26 justice-related case studies that collectively draw from 1569 data points, and which pertain to the mission context of the German Energiewende. We review observations linked to four justice tenets (e.g., distributive justice) across four policy arenas of the mission (e.g., programmatic arena). The results reveal some of the multi-scalar, multi-spatial, and multi-temporal ways through which injustices are conduced and addressed. We argue that injustices should not be treated as apolitical side effects of ‘neutral’ missions but rather viewed as symptomatic of contested policymaking processes.