D3.7 Horná Nitra Case Study Report
Abstract
This case study report presents the results of the ENTRANCES project, (ENergy TRANsitions from Coal and carbon: Effects on Societies). ENTRANCES‘ overall goals developing a theoretically-based and empirically-grounded understanding of cross-cutting issues related to social aspects of the clean energy transition in European coal and carbon intensive regions and formulating a set of recommendations able to tackle these issues. To achieve this goal, the project investigates the challenges facing carbon intensive regions in transition hinging on the idea that the transition to clean
energy should not be considered only as a technological change or an industrial shift but also as a complex and multidimensional process that affects the daily life of local communities.
... other coal-intensive regions that were analyzed in the entrances project are: lusatia -in Germany (barret 2022), rhineland -in Germany (bartl et al. 2022a), central Germany region (bartl et al. 2022b), jiu Valley region -in romania (holman and Popușoi 2022), sulcis -at sardinia (italy) (caiati et al. 2022), horná nitra -in slovakia (Filčák et al. 2022). the case studies considered concern the liquidation of large industries to transform coal regions into regions developing based on clean technologies. ...
Artykuł przedstawia rezultaty badań przeprowadzonych w ramach projektu ENTRANCES (finansowanego ze środków programu Horyzont 2020), które skoncentrowały się na analizie uwarunkowań socjologicznych w procesie transformacji polegającej na rezygnacji z produkcji węgla. Polskim obszarem badawczym w tym projekcie był region Śląska. Badania dotyczyły problemów, jakie w sposób nieunikniony dosięgną społeczność regionu w miarę coraz głębszych przeobrażeń na drodze do rezygnacji z węgla kamiennego. W artykule zidentyfikowane zostały główne wyzwania, przed którymi stoi ten region kraju, w kontekście adaptacji do głębokich zmian wynikających z likwidacji podstawowych miejsc pracy, jakimi w regionie są kopalnie węgla. Ponadto, autorzy artykułu proponują strategie, które mogą być stosowane w celu skutecznego radzenia sobie z tymi wyzwaniami. Propozycje strategii obejmują zarówno działania na poziomie polityki publicznej, jak i inicjatywy podejmowane przez sektor prywatny oraz społeczność lokalną. Zastosowana metoda badawcza objęła szeroką analizę wielu wymiarów, którym poddawane jest społeczeństwo regionu w warunkach przejściowych w ramach pięciu komponentów: socjo-kulturowego, socjo-psychologicznego, socjo-politycznego, socjo-ekonomicznego i socjo-ekologiczno-technicznego. Wyodrębnione wyzwania i opracowane możliwe do zastosowania strategie stanowią podsumowanie szerokich badań. Uzyskane wyniki pozwalają na głębsze zrozumienie procesów społecznych w trakcie transformacji energetycznej w regionach węglowych, a także sformułowanie praktycznych rozwiązań dla regionu śląskiego i innych obszarów.
This paper addresses the extensive structural changes of the Rhenish coal-mining area in Germany. Coal mining was and still is a relevant economic activity throughout Europe and is the focus of many political and societal debates, as well as research activities in the Rhenish coal-mining area. The project DAZWISCHEN followed the concept of evidence-based planning and therefore identified, by means of a GIS-based analysis, the structural changes within the Rhenish coal-mining area for the conflicting thematic clusters for settlement development and open space. Moreover, we investigated the complex multi-level governance that the region is characterized by. The results suggest an increased pressure on blue and green infrastructure by new urban development, especially in the northern part of the Rhenish coal-mining area. On the other hand, the southern part of the Rhenish coal-mining area will be more likely to undergo a process towards an increase in green infrastructure. Thus, the future development of the whole area is segregated in two different development trends in the north and south parts. The complex governance structure in the Rhenish coal-mining area requires an in-depth view of the ongoing working processes in the development of ideas and visions for regional mission statements of different planning areas, levels, and network partners in a real-life laboratory.
For a long time, Germany was regarded as a pioneer in climate policy. Recently, conflicts have intensified over the phase-out of coal from the energy sector. In 2020, the German Bundestag created the legal basis for a coal phase-out by 2038, subsequently revised to 2030 by the new coalition government of September 2021. This article analyzes the recent controversies from a political-economy perspective and shows the interrelationships and tensions between capitalism, democracy, and sustainability within Germany. In particular, the rise of right-wing populist attitudes opposing a coal phase-out, highlights the conflictual character and the social embeddedness of sustainability politics. The analysis of the conflicts surrounding the coal phase-out makes it possible to situate the future of energy supply in the overall societal context.
The exit from socio-technical regimes enjoys increasing scientific interest. While many studies which cover energy or sustainability transitions focus on system contexts, there is still a lack of research focusing on the locations and arenas of negotiation. The Hambach Forest in Germany is one such opportunity to investigate the discontinuation of coal energy production. Reconnecting the global with the local sides of policy issues, we focus on the local policy arena in the context of the national coal phase out. The question is how the coal discon-tinuation is negotiated in the context of the Hambach Forest conflict and how actors engage in framing interaction over the course of the conflict, and how the competing framings changed over time. With an analysis of the controversy in the social and mass media about lignite mining in a very specific location, we were able to identify framings along which two groupings clashed in a physical and discursive struggle in 2018-2019, the 'Climate and Landscape Protectors' and the 'Protectors of Public and Economic Order'. We found the framing categories of 'responsibility', 'cost-lose-gain nexus', and 'dependencies' and identified their fluctuation during the period of analysis. Energy transition and environmental protection clash with energy production incumbency, primacy of economy or ecology, and law and order. The Hambach Forest conflict has become a representative struggle about the speed of the coal exit pathway in Germany.
This article analyses how social movements shape the sense of place and influence energy transitions. It combines the Multi-Level Perspective of transition studies with the concept sense of place, allowing for an analysis of social movements at different levels linked to the role of placemaking. The Hambach Forest Movement and its network in Germany are taken as a case, drawing on 25 qualitative interviews with people related to the movement, the German Coal Commission, from civil society, and the energy company RWE. The paper finds that the interplay of activities of the network aiming for the protection of the Hambach Forest, and its international reverberations, led to the development of a strong sense of place. The sense of place was clearly reflected in the Coal Commission's final report in which a pathway for the German coal phase-out was outlined, a critical element of Germany's energy transition.
Es erscheint paradox: Die Arbeitslosigkeit in Deutschland erreicht ein historisches Tief, die Wirtschaft feiert Exportrekorde. Dennoch erreicht der Boom viele Menschen nicht. Gerade in strukturschwachen Regionen und Städten ist dieser Widerspruch ausgeprägt. Diese Orte gelten als abgehängt, aufgrund des Bevölkerungsrückgangs zeichnet sich keine Verbesserung der Situation ab. Im Leben vieler Menschen macht sich Unzufriedenheit breit. Angesichts niedriger Entlohnung und mangelnder Mitsprachemöglichkeiten am Arbeitsplatz radikalisieren sich Ungerechtigkeitsempfindungen. Die empirische Studie nimmt diese Dynamiken am Beispiel Ostthüringens, einer strukturschwachen und schrumpfenden Fallregion, in den Blick.
In light of a global higher education expansion, the paper analyses the historic-structural conditions of this development for the German state(s) after World War II. Building on Talcott Parsons citizenship patterns, the analysis centres on two core institutions of the German higher education system: the state-organized system of entitlement (Berechtigungswesen) and the civil right for access to higher education. The entitlement system established a unique form of vertical and horizontal correspondence between higher education and the labour market. It allowed for a successful transition from university to work (academization). As a state monopoly, it also hampered rapid expansion. The civil right to access mediated and restricted efforts to constrain the expansion in Western Germany. Its absence in Eastern Germany lead to contractions after political will changed. A large part of the post-World War II expansion in Germany can be explained through the interplay of the two core institutions. The partial dismantling of the entitlement system after 1998, has led to severe degree differentiation and change. Yet so far, employment fields still consistently adapt to the credential pressure from the expanding public research university.
Ideas play an important role in policy change. Theories of policy change, including rational and bounded learning, bracket what needs to be explained: the creation of new ideas. We develop a theory of creative learning in international organizations (IOs). It posits that IO officials respond to new problems and state practices by creating novel concepts and policy ideas. New ideas help officials to manage multiple pressures in their organization’s strategic situation. They enable officials to mediate principal demands while seeking to mobilize client states. We theorize three modes of creative learning that generate new ideas: conceptual combination , translation , and repurposing . Empirically, we explain a major change in global environmental policy: the rise of green growth ideas among major IOs, including the OECD, the UN, and the World Bank. Green growth ideas include new arguments drawn from Keynesian and Schumpeterian economics, which claim that environmental policies can drive economic growth. We show how these ideas were a creative response to the problem of climate change and emerging state interventions in support of clean energy. Our theory of creative learning applies beyond IOs to domestic politics and takes on added significance in times of transformative change that challenge the scripts of policymaking.
Telephone surveys have become much maligned in the past few years, considering recent failures to correctly predict elections worldwide, response rates declining into the single digits, and the rise of low-cost, nonprobabilistic alternatives. Yet there is no study assessing the degree to which data attained via modern-day telephone interviewing has or has not significantly declined in terms of data quality. Utilizing an elemental approach, we evaluate the bias of various cross-tabulations of core demographics from a collection of surveys collected over the past two decades. Results indicate that (1) there has been a modest increase in bias over the past two decades but a downward trend in the past five years; (2) the share of cell phone interviews in samples has a significant impact on the bias; (3) traditional weighting largely mitigates the linear trend in bias; and (4), once weighted, telephone samples are nearly on par in data quality to higher response rate unweighted in-person data. Implications for the “fit for purpose” of telephone data and its general role in the future of survey research are discussed given our findings.