The role of land in a just transition: the Appalachian Land Study collective

Scholars from a wide range of disciplines have grappled with defining and assessing the limitations and opportunities for ‘just’ low carbon energy transitions. Here, we offer an alternative approach to developing a framework for just transition that is grounded in long-term participatory action research with environmental justice communities in Appalachia. We ground our discussion in literature from both scholars and social movements, as well as experiences of the authors through collective autoethnography. Specifically, our work seeks to bring land ownership to the forefront of conversations about economic development in Appalachia and about energy transition more broadly, and to expand the perspectives of directly impacted communities in the scholarly literature. For the past 7 years, the contributors to this article have worked to build a broad-based ‘land study collective’ to support public knowledge, action, and policy focused on the role of land ownership in both incumbent energy systems and transition dynamics. We discuss our shared goals, our process of building the collective and defining and studying research questions across geographically dispersed stakeholders, and vignettes from empirical research of collective members. We conclude with challenges and considerations for others who may want to integrate participatory research on land ownership into their just transition frameworks. We pay special attention to the ethics and empirical benefits of collective autoethnography for developing just transition frameworks that incorporate the lived experiences of those most impacted by energy extraction regimes.