Post-growth policies for the future of just transitions in an era of uncertainty

•Uncertain futures require re-imagining just transitions in concept and practice.•Proposes overlapping agendas organized around post-growth care work.•Offers ways to broaden the agents, structures, and financing of just transitions.•A set of criteria may be used to guide transitions beyond fossil fuel dependence. Just transition aims to reconcile environmental and social concerns especially for fossil-fuel dependent areas. Yet even with broad support, we can expect ongoing shocks and events to shape the implementation of just transition agendas. In concept and practice, just transitions must directly account for and anticipate profound uncertainties regarding the social and ecological context in which such projects are planned and implemented, while breaking from growth dependence. This paper argues that the future of just transitions must center on essential care work to better ensure well-being without economic growth. The essay examines diverse perspectives on the meaning of just transition, articulating a more transformative approach under conditions of economic instability. The review demonstrates broadening understandings of just transitions, spanning from those more narrowly focused on immediate worker- and sectoral supports to those aiming for more fundamental and lasting transformations of economies and societies. Given the extreme social, economic, and ecological uncertainties of our time, the paper lastly proposes temporally overlapping agendas for policies, strategies, and institutions of just transition organized around post-growth care work. As inspired by the field of futures studies, the article contributes a set of criteria to help advance just transitions beyond fossil fuel and growth dependence.