Ecological conflicts: Representative claims, conflict strategies, and the contours of the coming society
Ecological conflicts are shaping the contours of the future society. In these conflicts, political institutions are renegotiated (representation of future generations, rivers, mountains), new and old social groups are invoked by representative claims (the "last generation," the "steak-eaters of society"), and their confrontations redraw the boundaries of "civilized" conflicts. In short, they shape the institutional order, the privileged social groups, and the dynamics of political contestation, The goal of the project is to systematically analyze the normative claims and strategic relations and to trace the contours of the emergent society through the ecological conflicts.
To do so, the project combines perspectives from representation and conflict theory and applies them to the empirical analysis of conflict situations. The research group jointly examines the conflicts surrounding the "climate ruling" of the German Federal Constitutional Court, the "coal commission," and the forthcoming global climate conferences. In three sub-projects, we investigate particular perspectives on each of these three conflicts and draw on other ecological conflicts for a comparative research approach. The first sub-project analyzes representative claims, the second examines memory and idea politics (e.g., the "green RAF"), and the third investigates the conflict strategies of the actors.
Financer
Gerda-Henkel-Stiftung
Duration of project
Start date: 05/2023
End date: 05/2026
Research Areas
Social Sciences
Research Areas
Gesellschaftstheorie, Klimawandel, Konflikte, ökologische Transformation der Gesellschaft, Politische Soziologie, Politische Theorie
