Localised Pathways of Twin Transitions: Insights from the Energy Sector in Stara Zagora and Kozani

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Abstract
Twin green and digital transitions (TTs) are framed as mutually reinforcing pathways toward climate neutrality and economic modernisation. However, local realities in peripheral, coal regions in Southeastern Europe (SEE) indicate a more complex and contested picture. The paper traces how TTs are shaped, perceived, negotiated, and implemented in two historically lignite-dependent areas, Stara Zagora (Southeast Region, Bulgaria) and Kozani (Western Macedonia, Greece), through qualitative comparative research drawing on 24 semi-structured interviews with energy workers, institutional stakeholders, local government representatives, and industry actors, conducted between June and October 2025, triangulated with statistical, institutional, and policy documentation. The conceptualisation integrates labour regimes, Varieties of Capitalism, and Europeanisation, while the analysis examines divergent local pathways produced by common European policy architecture. The findings indicate that TTs are not experienced nor understood as unified synergistic agendas but as asymmetric and differentiated processes, with green transition dominating the discourse while digital transition remains detached from the materialised understandings of transition. Governance is perceived as centralised and distant, labour market interventions such as retraining programmes serve as fund absorption mechanisms, while renewable energy projects generate neither quality employment nor community ownership. Instead of transformative processes, TTs in both cases function as a renewed modality of deindustrialisation. The paper moves from empirical findings of local transition realities to normative arguments about the democratic governance conditions that just transition requires.
Funding Information
  • EU Recovery and Resilience Facility (№ ПВУ-1 от 03.04.2025 г./BG-RRP-2.018-0003-C01)
  • European Commission (101183817)

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