Reclaiming Industrial Policy for the People Civil Society's Role in Green Structural Transformation
Topics
In Johannesburg this week, 28-29 August, TIDE Centre, University of Oxford, TIPS (NPC), and Transnational Institute are convening a global forum on “Reclaiming Industrial Policy for the People: Civil Society’s Role in Green Structural Transformation”. Policymakers, industry leaders, researchers, and community advocates are coming together to tackle an urgent question: Can industrial policy be green, inclusive, and just?
Industrial policy decisions shape who benefits from development, whose labour is valued, and how resources are used. Too often, these decisions have been made by elites, sidelining the voices of communities, workers, and social movements. As the climate crisis intensifies, the need to reclaim industrial policy as a tool for people and planet has never been greater.
This event will:
- Explore how communities and movements can democratise industrial policy;
- Put feminist and care-centred perspectives at the heart of green transitions;
- Tackle the contested geographies of extractivism, land, and sacrifice zones;
- Examine the role of trade unions in shaping just transitions;
- Debate how financing can be made fairer, redistributive, and accountable;
- And strengthen critical research and networks that hold power to account.
By bringing these perspectives together, the forum aims to build knowledge, solidarity, and collective power for a justice-centred industrial transformation, one that responds to climate realities while advancing equity and democracy.
At this event, ideas meet action: communities, researchers, and decision-makers working together to shape industrial futures that put people first.