Masculinity, labour, and Indigeneity: identity negotiation on the path to a just transition

Abstract

As pressure continues to grow to reduce global emissions, recognition of the widespread impacts on various groups from such efforts has inspired calls for a just transition. On the one hand, Canada's path to decarbonization must address workers who stand to lose their jobs, while ensuring this does not compromise just futures for marginalized groups. In particular, the future that a just transition is working toward must attend to Indigenous sovereignty to resist reproducing existing systems of inequity. To explore this tension, I attend to the instrumental role of identity in shaping how different groups navigate the transition. I approach the energy transition with an emphasis on materiality, framing resource extraction as a process involved with both fossil fuel energies and renewable technologies. I begin by acknowledging the stereotypes that surround those who work in resource extraction and, in so doing, draw attention to the class, gender, and colonial narratives that support these extractive identity archetypes. Through identity scholarship, I seek to explore paths towards a just transition that emerge once the influence of these extractive identities has been acknowledged. The three questions guiding this work include: 1) What relationship does identity have to either resistance against or support for transition? 2) What role does livelihood actually play in identity? 3) How might we mobilize the values expressed by extraction workers to support, rather than resist, transition? I take three unique approaches to explore these questions. First, I conduct a thought experiment emerging from a social media analysis on the potential for fossil fuel worker identities to be co-opted by bots on social media to sway public perceptions on a transition. Then, I analyze semistructured interviews with Alberta oil and gas workers and, finally, semi-structured interviews with mine workers from the Tłıc̨ hǫ nation. I find that some identities are more relevant to the energy transition than others and advance the concept of politically salient identities to capture the relevance of extractive workers to the broader transition conversation. I argue that resistance to transition does not emerge from a role commitment to extractive labour, but the status and class mobility made possible through employment in the industry. The perceived class-based gender stereotypes about field-level workers act as a key source of mistrust among workers in transition policies. I, therefore, highlight the importance of class analysis in energy transition research and the need for meaningful participation of impacted labour groups in imagining energy futures. I also argue that broad identity meanings serve as an important source of resilience for groups navigating social change, particularly for the Tłıc̨ hǫ. Finally, I advocate that transition planning must explicitly focus on rural, Indigenous workers so communities are not coerced into resource development to fuel rising global demand for rare earth minerals.