Tobias Kalt
Tobias Kalt, PhD in political science, studies transformation processes of global energy and industrial systems through the lenses of political ecology and political economy, with a particular focus on power dynamics, conflicts, and justice.
In the research project "Industrial Workers in Transformation", funded by the Hans Böckler Foundation, he examines how industrial transformation impacts the labor process, how industrial workers incorporate their own justice claims into processes of industrial transformation on the shopfloor, and how the resulting dynamics influence transformation processes both in the factory and in broader society.
Furthermore, Tobias Kalt explores the development of a global hydrogen economy as a response to energy and climate crises, focusing particularly on power and justice issues.
Research focus:
- Socio-ecological transformation and transition conflicts
- South-North relations, (green) extractivism, and energy justice
- Labor and ecology, particularly the role of trade unions and employees in transformation processes
- (Neo-)Gramscian approaches in political ecology
Selected publications:
2025
- The German scramble for green hydrogen in Namibia: Colonial legacies revisited? Political Geography, 118, doi: doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2025.103293 (with Johanna Tunn, Franziska Müller, Jesko Hennig, Jenny Simon)
2024
- Green hydrogen transitions deepen socioecological risks and extractivist patterns: evidence from 28 prospective exporting countries in the Global South. Energy Research & Social Science. 117, 10.1016/j.erss.2024.103731 (with Johanna Tunn, Franziska Müller, Jenny Simon, Jesko Hennig, Imeh Ituen, Nina Glatzer)
- Postfossile Transformation? Umkämpfte Dekarbonisierung, fossile Kontinuitäten und fortgesetzter Extraktivismus in der globalen Wasserstoffökonomie. PROKLA - Zeitschrift für kritische Sozialwissenschaft, 54(216): 371-390. doi: 10.32387/prokla.v54i216.2139 (with Jenny Simon, Anne Tittor)
- Transition Conflicts: A Gramscian Political Ecology Perspective on the Contested Nature of Sustainability Transitions. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transition, 50. doi: 10.1016/j.eist.2024.100812
2023
- Between green extractivism and energy justice: competing strategies in South Africa’s hydrogen transition in the context of climate crisis. Review of African Political Economy, 50(177-178): 302-321. doi: 10.1080/03056244.2023.2260206 (with Jenny Simon, Johanna Tunn, Jesko Hennig)
- Zwischen Konfrontation und Kooperation: Der Transformationskonflikt Arbeit versus Klima in der südafrikanischen Energiewende. PROKLA - Zeitschrift für kritische Sozialwissenschaft 53(210): 99-115. doi: 10.32387/prokla.v53i210.2030
2022
- Kämpfe für Klimagerechtigkeit. In: Daniela Gottschlich, Sarah Hackfort, Tobias Schmitt und Uta von Winterfeld (Eds.). Handbuch Politische Ökologie. Theorien, Konflikte, Begriffe, Methoden. Bielefeld: transcript, pp. 173-182. (Link)
- Hydrogen justice. Environmental Research Letters 17: 115006. doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/ac991a (with Franziska Müller und Johanna Tunn)
- Shipping the sunshine? A critical research agenda on the global hydrogen transition. GAIA 31(2): 72-76. doi: 10.14512/gaia.31.2.2 (together with Johanna Tunn)
- Agents of transition or defenders of the status quo? Trade union strategies in green transitions. Journal of Industrial Relations 64(4): 499-521. doi: 10.1177/00221856211051794
2021
- Jobs vs. climate justice? Contentious narratives of labor and climate movements in the coal transition in Germany. Environmental Politics 30(7): 1135-1154. doi: 10.1080/09644016.2021.1892979
Further publications can be found here.