Ecological Conflicts

The Earth's climate is changing rapidly and entire ecosystems are collapsing. Whether and how we should react to climate change and species extinction together is highly controversial politically. However, these ecological conflicts are not only being fought out among political parties in election campaigns and parliamentary debates. In particular, the global social movement "Fridays for Future" of students regularly demonstrates for better climate protection and is now recognised by international governmental organisations such as the United Nations as representing the "young generation". Other political activists see themselves as representing the "last generation", while opponents style themselves as representing a threatened majority society of "neck steak eaters". How are such claims of representation asserted? When are they recognised or rejected? And what conflict dynamics arise from this? These are the questions that the new research group "Ecological Conflicts" led by Dr Vincent August (Humboldt University Berlin) and Professor André Brodocz (University of Erfurt) is investigating.

We suspect that contours of the coming society are being negotiated in the ecological conflicts. The institutional order is being readjusted, social groups are positioning themselves, and in this process very fundamental conflicts are emerging, each with their own dynamics," explains Vincent August. "We want to investigate whether these disputes about political representation reveal new patterns of how we will conduct our political conflicts in the future - even beyond the challenges of climate change," adds André Brodocz.

With this goal in mind, the project compares three concrete conflict events of the present: the disputes over the 'climate ruling' of the Federal Constitutional Court, the phase-out of lignite-fired power generation with the so-called Coal Commission and the conflicts over the upcoming world climate conferences.