Intergenerational accountability in the times of just transitions
研究通过原住民社区的案例，探讨如何将问责制扩展到未来世代，同时避免因长期主义而延迟行动，发现原住民的“永恒当下”时间观有助于应对气候危机，但受到商业最佳实践和殖民国家的制约。
Purpose This study explores the concept of intergenerational accountability to address the grand challenge of a just transition. Intergenerational accountability extends the notion of accountability for the other to include future generations in ways that avoid the trap of long-termism and delayed action. Design/methodology/approach We follow a critical qualitative case study approach with an Indigenous community in a settler colony. Sources of empirical materials include semi-structured interviews and documentary reviews, analysed abductively through thematic analysis. Findings Intergenerational accountability extends the notion of accountability for the other temporally by including future generations. Indigenous temporalities offer a way to address concerns that accountability to distant future generations could delay the urgency to act now. Findings suggest that the “eternal present”, where aspirations of ancestors and obligations to descendants coalesce into a contemporary obligation, has the potential to help confront the climate crisis. However, the ability to actively practice these understandings is constrained by commercial “best practice” and the colonial state. These constraints necessitate struggles for Indigenous self-determination that also exist in the eternal present. Originality/value We extend the concept of accountability for the other to include future generations, but avoid the trap of long-termism delaying action through the eternal present of Indigenous temporalities. However, these temporalities are constrained, so struggles for Indigenous self-determination become closely intertwined with struggles for a just transition.