In my research, I investigate how ideas of a just transition govern climate and environmental politics. I examine how a "just transition" is constructed in political debates, and how just transition as a policy tool impacts people and communities in regions with fossil-based industries. I am interested in just transition as an object of politics, debate, and conflict and thus depart from the normative approach that characterises a large part of research in the field. Instead of asking how a just transition can be achieved, I explore what a just transition is and how it is discursively and practically used by different actors. In my research, I have a particular interest in Poland and Estonia, and I adopt a poststructuralist lens.

I have previously worked in the project "Governance and justice and resistance" at the Swedish University of Agriculture. External link. Within the project, my colleagues and I explored how freedom, as a political principle and moral value, was used in the Swedish transition debate to argue for or against climate and environmental policy proposals. I have also researched how different dimensions of justice are at odds with each other discursively and practically in climate work in Sweden and Scotland.

Publications
Marklund, J., Förell, N., & Fischer, A. (2025). Freedom as a discursive instrument in Swedish transition governance: how political actors strategically construct normative power. Critical Policy Studies, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/19460171.2025.2476976