“We Participate, You Participate— <i>They Decide</i> ”: Istvan Mészáros, Henri Lefebvre, and the Social and Ecological Contradictions of the Just Energy Transition

ABSTRACT This review critically examines the contradictions of the just energy transition while developing a theoretical framework for moving analysis forward. We address how the current energy transition is beset with numerous ecological and social contradictions. Renewable energy production is on the rise but has not substantively displaced fossil fuels while meaningful participation in this process is partial and limited. We review the literature on energy transition technologies and participation as elements of an energy transition while paying close attention to the different levels of analysis employed (moving from the individual to the institutional). These perspectives, while important, miss out on macro‐level, structural processes, neglecting systemic dynamics that impede just energy transitions. We argue that, through synthesizing the theoretical insights of Istvan Mészáros and Henri Lefebvre, we can develop a robust orientation for future just energy transition research. More specifically, we focus on the significance of placing the energy transition within the historically specific context of capital's social metabolism. Our discussion highlights how capital's adversarial class structure, in conjunction with its growth imperative, creates contradictory spaces limiting the potential of a just energy transition to address the climate emergency. Lefebvre's radical project of autogestion provides a guideline for the just energy transition to transcend capital's alienated socio‐spatial metabolism.