Social justice, fairness and exclusion in the South Korean electricity sector

Abstract

This research investigates the ways in which mainstream energy policy based on a utilitarian principle of the greatest good creates injustice. To be more specific, drawing on insights from the recent energy justice scholarship, we address a question of how economic growth-focused energy systems that serve to maximize the aggregate benefit for all interfere with social justice. On the theoretical side, we employ Jenkins and colleagues' three-pronged approach to assessing the fairness of energy services as a conceptual underpinning, comprising considerations of recognition, distribution and procedure. On the empirical side, we illustrate the case of South Korea that demonstrates how an energy system driven by inexorable compulsion towards economic growth stymies fairness. Overall, the analysis reported here underscores that energy decisions devoid of ethical considerations are detrimental, be it intentionally or inadvertently, to the powerless who reside in social peripheries. We anticipate that the South Korean experience will provide salutary lessons for emerging economies voraciously draining energy resources without social justice concerns.