Coupling and Decoupling of Preferences for Social and Environmental Justice in the Context of Decarbonisation and a Persistent Digital Divide: Evidence from Former Mining Regions in Rural Leon, Spain

Preferences for social and environmental justice are often seen as going together among populations suffering from the negative impacts of extractive industries in the global south. Double exposure to the negative social impacts of decarbonization and a persistent digital divide, however, tend to give rise to a decoupling of such preferences in the global north. This, however, is not always the case as evidenced by in-depth qualitative research from the former mining regions in rural Leon, Spain. A consideration of different individual and contextual factors as potential drivers of the observed cases of coupling and decoupling of such preferences among different individuals and groups involved in the study, suggest the need for a closer consideration of the question of work and its social footprint, which is often unaccounted for in current notions of a just transition.