Coordinator:
Paul Arteaga (Lappeenranta University of Technology)

Description:
This working group explores the so-called green–digital (or “twin”) transition from a critical  political-economic perspective. Current discussions on the twin transition often oscillate  between an optimistic view that highlights the potential of digitalisation to enable and  accelerate decarbonisation, and a critical view that typically remains confined to case-specific  analyses or to rebound effects (e.g. energy efficiency), leaving broader questions of power,  class relations, and geopolitics under-examined. 

We welcome contributions situated anywhere along this spectrum but are particularly interested  in critical and conflict-oriented perspectives on how digitalisation and decarbonisation are  reshaping contemporary capitalism. We especially encourage work drawing on critical data  studies, critical social theory, political economy, heterodox economics, emphasising questions  of class, labour, value, control, and resistance. 

The working group invites theoretical and empirical papers that engage, for example, with: 

• How EU and national policy frameworks construct and operationalise the “twin  transition”: what political-economic logics, growth models, and imaginaries underpin  them? 
• The roles of digital infrastructures, platforms, AI systems, and data governance regimes  in structuring the green transition and reorganising labour–capital relations. 
• The geopolitics of AI and digital infrastructures in the context of decarbonisation,  including new forms of dependency, extraction, and uneven development between the  Global North and Global South. 
• How emerging governance models reproduce or challenge tensions between economic  competitiveness, ecological sustainability, and social justice. 
• Intersections between energy systems, digital technologies, and financial instruments  in shaping new regimes of accumulation, risk, and control. 
• Public policies and regulatory experiments related to the green–digital transition, their  limitations, and the scope for democratic alternatives. 

We aim to foster an interdisciplinary dialogue among scholars of political economy, sociology,  economics, philosophy, political science, critical data studies, energy and environmental  governance, and related fields. 

Type of call:
Call for Abstracts/Papers. The session will consist of paper presentations followed by a roundtable discussion among  presenters and invited commentators. A short open discussion with the audience will conclude  the session.

Format:
Paper presentations followed by discussion.

Submission details: 

• Abstract length: maximum 300 words 
• Submission email: paul.arteaga@lut.fi 

Full papers are desirable but not required. Selected authors will be invited to circulate short  discussion papers (4–6 pages) before the conference to facilitate in-depth debate.

Participation mode: 
Onsite (with the possibility of hybrid participation upon request)

Contact:
Paul Arteaga, paul.arteaga@lut.fi