Integrating Energy Transition Sociotechnical Imaginaries with Land Rights Struggles for Climate Justice in Brazil’s Northeast

This study investigates how the dominant sociotechnical imaginary (STI) of the energy transition in Ceará, Brazil, reconfigures territorial relations by marginalizing existing spatial imaginaries, such as the land reform. Based on document analysis and fieldwork in the Serra da Ibiapaba region—including site visits, interviews, and focus groups—the study demonstrates how expert narratives and representations make land legible and investible for large-scale renewable energy projects. These imaginaries are enacted through legal fixes and selective community engagement, often clashing with local aspirations for land justice. While some residents embrace the STI, others resist, exposing deep territorial tensions. The findings reveal that renewable energy development is neither a neutral nor an inevitable process, but one embedded in scalar politics and historical geographies. Importantly, the results also indicate that integrating sociotechnical and spatial imaginaries is both possible and desirable, offering a place-based pathway for energy transition that aligns with historical spatial imaginaries and advances climate justice.