New Publication: Knowledge and Development V

Like the four previous volumes, this book continues the publication of the best texts from the Young Talent Austrian Development Research Award. In 2023, the theme of the prize was Energy Transition and the Global South. It also includes contributions of the winners of the main prize: a reflection on Austria's colonial history by the historian Walter Sauer, and a theoretical treatise on the concept of climate colonialism by sociologist Karin Fischer, who characterizes climate crisis as a global crisis of distribution and justice.

As different as the contributions of the young scientists presented here may be, they are all linked by a central theme: Whether Ugandan climate activists, palm oil farmers in Indonesia, opponents of lithium mining in Argentina, Indian women workers in enormous heat, or villagers in Uganda who benefit from simple emission-reducing solar technology, climate change and the resulting energy transition always have – in addition to technological and economic aspects – a central social dimension that must be negotiated sociopolitically and which must also be critically accompanied by social science. Development research also makes an important contribution to these diverse transformation processes – not least as a peace project.

Editor Andreas J. Obrecht is a habilitated sociologist and head of the OeAD’s Division of Science and Research for Development Cooperation.