Place‐based sustainability transformations for just futures: a systematic review
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The planet is facing enduring and intersecting challenges from climate change, land degradation, habitat and biodiversity loss, as well as social inequalities. To achieve sustainability in the face of these crises, transformative changes are essential. While the path towards a more sustainable future has the capacity to bring net social benefits, it also holds the potential to exacerbate vulnerabilities. As such, there is growing recognition that social equity and justice must be central to action for sustainability transformations. However, it remains unclear what characterises a ‘just transformation’ and how to achieve it. To develop a baseline understanding of how social justice is integrated into sustainability transformations and to help guide research and practice in this emerging field, we present a systematic literature review of 125 papers that explicitly account for social equity and justice in research on place-based transformations. Results reveal considerable variation and ambiguity in how the concepts of transformation and equity are employed, and highlight a focus on a narrow set of systems, with a large number of papers focusing on energy and urban transformations, located primarily in the Global North. While distributional and procedural dimensions of justice are frequently addressed, contextual and restorative justice remain underexplored. We identify key areas that require future attention in research and practice, including promoting interdisciplinary research that champions global inclusivity as well as a more explicit consideration of contextual justice and place.
Date Issued
2025-07-01
Date Acceptance
2025-10-24
Citation
Geo: Geography and Environment, 2025, 12 (2)
ISSN
2054-4049
Publisher
Wiley
Journal / Book Title
Geo: Geography and Environment
Volume
12
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© 2025 The Author(s). Geo: Geography and Environment published by the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
e70040
Date Publish Online
2025-11-24