Rethinking ‘just transitions’ from coal: the dynamics of land and labour in anti-coal struggles

Communities resisting large coal mining projects navigate the significant tensions between imperatives of urgent climate action and economic growth in complex contingent ways. Drawing on empirical research a region Central-Eastern India, this paper examines how changing ‘agrarian’ context rural livelihoods household reproduction within mining-affected communities shapes motivations local anti-coal struggles, articulation climate-change related concerns them. It argues that such conceptualization political contestations over extraction points to crucial possibilities for building broader counter-hegemonic movements more inclusive ‘just transitions’ away from coal.