Registration ends on 12.10.2026 at 23:59.

The expansion of renewable energy, particularly large-scale infrastructure projects such as wind and solar farms and hydropower plants, as well as the extraction of minerals critical to the energy transition, is increasingly giving rise to land use conflicts and questions of democratic participation, legitimacy and justice, especially in contexts shaped by customary land rights and the traditional ways of life of indigenous communities. While such initiatives are legitimised at national and global levels as essential contributions to climate action (SDG 13) and energy security (SDG 7), they often conflict with the land rights, cultural practices, and right to self-determination of indigenous peoples (SDG 10, SDG 16). Existing planning and permitting processes frequently fail to protect these rights or enable meaningful participation in decisions that profoundly affect indigenous peoples' homelands and ways of life. At the same time, indigenous communities are increasingly recognized as key actors in sustainable development.
In this course, we examine these tensions through a philosophy of science lens, reflecting on how knowledge is produced, whose knowledge counts and what structural and communicative conditions enable or constrain meaningful indigenous participation. We reflect on what a just transition requires beyond technological solutions and under what epistemological and ethical conditions research in this field can be responsibly conducted. Drawing on cases of both conflicts and indigenous-led and indigenous-partnered renewable energy projects across different regional contexts, we develop and discuss research questions and designs and reflect on the epistemological and ethical implications of engaging with this field and consider what critically aware, justice-oriented research looks like in inter- and transdisciplinary contexts.

After completing the course, students will be able to:
- contextualise conflicts between energy transition projects and indigenous land rights within philosophy of science debates on knowledge and legitimacy and democratic participation;
- critically reflect on indigenous knowledge and governance practices as epistemologically meaningful contributions relative to a just transition;
- apply decolonial and participatory frameworks to assess structural conditions for meaningful indigenous engagement;
- evaluate the possibilities and limits of inter- and transdisciplinary research approaches in this field.

Further information on teaching evaluation: https://www.leuphana.de/en/teaching/quality-management/evaluation/course-evaluation.html