Quitting coal and the hunt for a post-fossil society: Strukturwandel in an Eastern German mining district

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Dr Jessica Lehman, Department of Geography

The gradual implementation of the German coal (lignite) phase-out, executed no later than 2038, will provide mounting challenges for the Central German Mining District. The hope is to find a consensus between climate justice, energy security, economic stability, and social peace. Climate justice, energy transition, and the finite nature of fossil resources are the driving forces behind this process labelled as Strukturwandel, structural change, indicating that something more significant than a pure economic transformation is intended. Mining regions shall be transformed into model regions for sustainable growth. Challenges of today are labelled as chances for tomorrow; Strukturwandel shall be a transition towards a sustainable future. This project investigates anthropologically how different actors in the Central German Mining District try to keep pace with the making of post-carbon futures. How is the post-fossil society made, and who is supposed to participate in it?

Felix Schiedlowski is a PhD Candidate at the Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. He focuses on politics and energy in Eastern Germany and Northern Ireland. In his PhD project, Felix is researching the making and unmaking of post-coal-futures in the Central German Mining District. Here, the downscaling of coal opens up negotiations and contestations about visions of, and access to, post-carbon futures. Previously, Felix has studied how the urban recovery of Belfast shapes the Northern Irish peace process.