Protest and Polarisation in the Context of Energy Transition and Climate Policy in Germany: Mindsets and Collective Identities

Abstract

The policy field of energy and climate policy has been shaped by a profound polarisation in recent years. On the one hand, young people in urban centres across Germany and beyond are protesting in the streets, demanding more effective political action and greater responsibility regarding climate change. On the other hand, citizens in rural areas are increasingly rejecting specific projects to implement the energy transition. These distinct poles are diametrically opposed and form clusters of people sharing the same mindsets regarding the issue of climate and energy policy. We conduct a qualitative analysis to describe these shared mindsets and collective identities of these clusters and their specific conceptualisation of the ‘others’. Although the shared mindsets of the clusters are distinct, some narratives overlap, e.g. the ambition to serve the common good, the strong reliance on science and experts and the attachment to nature and the environment. Both poles recognise each other as their respective counterpart, but the external perception is mostly negative and distorted thus leading to additional tension. Finally, we conclude that it is worthwhile for future research to investigate if this polarisation integrates into existing cleavages or whether it should be discussed beyond this.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank all interviewees and participants for taking part in our case study research, the anonymous reviewers for their constructive and helpful comments to improve an earlier version of the paper, Swen Hutter and Manès Weisskircher as supportive editors of this Special Issue as well as Nina Kerker for proofreading the manuscript. Parts of the data collection was supported by BP Europe SE in the context of the 1st BP Society Study, others by the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony. We thank for this support!

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 See main publications: Hoeft, Messinger-Zimmer, and Zilles (2017); Marg et al. (2013).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Julia Zilles

Julia Zilles works as a social scientist on local conflicts in the context of energy transition. She is coordinator of the research area Social Sciences of the Energy Research Centre of Lower Saxony (EFZN) based at the Sociological Research Institute Göttingen.

Stine Marg

Dr. Stine Marg is a political scientist with expertise in qualitative methods, social movement studies, democracy research, participation, and political culture research based at the Institute for Democracy Research Göttingen.