Developing an intersectionally-informed, multi-sited, critical policy ethnography to examine power and procedural justice in multiscalar energy and climate change decisionmaking processes

Historically, energy and climate research have failed to fully integrate research from the social sciences. This is problematic as the development of energy systems and the rapid acceleration of climate change are directly tied to human activity. When the social sciences are incorporated in energy and climate research, their scope is frequently economically oriented. Methodological approaches remain frequently quantitative in nature. While important, these approaches cannot fully capture the nuances of power, inequality, and justice within decisionmaking processes that create and constitute our energy systems and subsequent climate change impacts and outcomes. As energy decisions and policies continue to increasingly shape the extent to which the world is impacted by climate change, we must think precisely about the complexity of identity and who is involved in energy decisions; who benefits from, and who is burdened by particular sets of energy decisions and the impacts of climate change. In addition, we must examine how these burdens and benefits manifest differently based on individual and group identities. To ignore these questions creates a research field where social actors and organizations remain decoupled from their role and responsibilities in the construction of and participation in these energy systems; where the embeddedness of a system is taken for granted, remains unscrutinized and unchallenged, and acts as a path-dependent barrier to the envisioning and building of an alternative energy future. In order to strengthen energy and climate change research and policy we must engage in research methods that can better account for underlying issues of power and justice within the decisionmaking processes across multiple socio-political scales. More specifically in this paper, I argue that using qualitative methodological tools rooted in intersectional feminist theory, such as a multi-sited critical policy ehtnography, are a crucial way to do so.