This introduction presents the fields of peripheries, conflicts and transformations as core topics of critical energy geographies. These fields point to different ways how the provision of energy is interwoven with social inequalities and uneven spatial development. Tackling the relations between energy technology and social power, the contributions to this Theme Issue highlight how power and resistance unfold in different spatial contexts and are linked to various notions of justice.

Using the example of resistance to a mega-project in southern Mexico, this paper explores the emotional connections between bodies and land. The mega-project in question is the Interoceanic Corridor, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, leading to significant territorial reorganisation. Based on interviews with women who identify as defenders of territorio, I investigate how the women use their emotional link strategically in their practices of resistance.

Groundwater is key to the survival of people and ecosystems. Due to global change impacts, conflicts around groundwater thrive and knowledge gaps exist. In the assessment of five case studies we find that groundwater research is in tension between the rapid production of knowledge to solve existential crises and the slow production of knowledge to challenge injustices. Geographic research that combines different perspectives can play an important role in addressing this tension.

The analysis of the discourses relating to wild animals in urban administration and planning shows the spectrum of justifications on the grounds of which free roaming animals have been killed in German cities since the 1950s.

This intervention examines the fraught relationship between precarious early-career researchers (ECRs) and "slow scholarship" in the neoliberal academy, based on my reflections as a Swiss-based ECR. While ERCs aspire to "slow down" and conduct more caring research, we face pressures to "speed up" outputs in a competitive job market. Precarity unevenly impacts women and shapes personal decisions about the future. Navigating this requires collective efforts that are attuned to social difference.