A new carrier for old assumptions? Imagined publics and their justice implications for hydrogen development in the Netherlands

Abstract

This paper presents an anticipatory approach to energy justice by focusing on nascent justice implications of imagined publics in transition visions. We test this approach in a case study, building on an interpretive qualitative content analysis of twenty-one vision documents followed by a select number of interviews on the hydrogen transition in the Netherlands. Combining theory and case insights, we develop the thesis that publics, in their various roles and compositions and with their diverse demands, are not always acknowledged nor correctly represented in the Dutch hydrogen transition. Non-recognition and misrecognition of publics in vision documents is problematic and unjust and can result in future distributive and procedural justice issues when these recognition injustices become performed in and through policy, technology, and infrastructure. Reflections on the opportunities and risks of this anticipatory approach are provided, and so are recommendations for more just and inclusive (hydrogen) transitions.