Processes of power: Transitions and justice of energy infrastructure in Minnesota

Practitioners and scholars contend that transitions, to be successful in redistributing benefits, should grapple with power dynamics. For many, however, there are gaps in understanding how power dynamics change over time, and how changes in power dynamics can help create transitions that are just. To help inform these gaps, we rely on first- and secondhand historical accounts to build thick, decades-long narratives of three infrastructure systems in the U.S. state of Minnesota. We apply the Powershifts framework to show how incumbent and grassroots actors built or shifted instrumental, structural, and discursive power over time. Our results demonstrate the ways in which incumbent actors preserve physical infrastructures while grassroots actors play sometimes catalytic roles in igniting different local and regional change. We offer insights relevant for both practitioners and scholars, reflecting that transitions orienting toward local justice may always be, necessarily, works of process and incompleteness.