The Runway. The Conflict Surrounding the Expansion of Frankfurt Airport 1962 - 1987

在1987年之前的二十多年里，法兰克福机场通过建造一条新的起飞跑道(Startbahn 18 West)进行扩建，伴随着环保主义者和当地居民的生动抗议。这项研究旨在解释为什么是这个特殊的项目引发了规模和持续时间相当长的抗议运动。这种方法将是以对象为中心的，遵循所谓的科学技术研究的“物质转向”。跑道的哪些特性让它成为无情抗议的目标，偶尔会导致暴力事件？哪些特性让它对规划者和工程师如此有吸引力，他们希望不被它的不受欢迎所感动？这条跑道遭到了反对，因为它造成了广泛的噪音污染，而且它会移除当地人用来娱乐的森林。可以认为这仅仅是一种范围有限的“不在我的后院”的反应，但这场运动超出了区域关切的界限。此外，应该指出的是，跑道并不代表引入了一项新技术，而发生影响整个人口的重大事故的风险似乎可以忽略不计。此外，航空也不是一种可以像核能和燃煤那样被“逐步淘汰”的技术。因此，问题是：这对支持者和抗议者都有什么利害关系？这项工作的假设是，跑道是据称缺乏民主合法性的技术官僚政权的具体产物。因此，这既是对郊区生活的一种有形的干扰，也是顽强的精英阶层的象征，他们遵循承诺提高飞行能力和经济增长的计划。其目的是通过几个层面的论述来追踪秀台的物质品质。它触及了环境、医疗、经济、政治和文化方面的问题。话语分析将把T台置于物质和社会关系的网络中，遵循布鲁诺·拉图尔等人在演员网络理论中发展的范畴。航空基础设施等设施获得了文化意义，因此是挑战基于知识的专家制度和非专业人员之间区别的社会技术系统，特别是当它们陷入专业知识和反专业知识的纠缠时。跑道代表着两种动员，一种是在全球化联系的体系内，另一种是在动员公众抗议和替代形式的知识以实现目标的社会运动中。

For over two decades until 1987 the extension of Frankfurt Airport through the construction of a new takeoff runway (Startbahn 18 West) was accompanied by vivid protests of environmentalists and local residents. The study aims to explain why it was this particular project that galvanized a protest movement of considerable size and duration. The approach will be object centered, following the so called “material turn” in science and technology studies. What properties of the runway made it the target of relentless protest, occasionally resulting in violence, and what properties made it so attractive for planners and engineers who would aim to see it through unmoved by its unpopularity? The runway was opposed due to its extensive noise pollution and the fact that it would remove a forest that locals used for recreation. This could be dismissed as a mere “not-in-my backyard” reaction of limited scope, but the movement expanded beyond the boundaries of regional concerns. It should be noted, additionally, that the runway did not represent the introduction of a new technology, while the risk of a major accident that would affect an entire population seemed negligible. Also, aviation was not a technology that could be “phased out” such as nuclear energy and the burning of coal. The question thus is: What was at stake for both supporters and protesters?The hypothesis of this work is that the runway was the concrete outgrowth of a technocratic regime allegedly lacking democratic legitimacy. It was thus both a tangible disturbance of suburban living and a symbol for a tenacious elite that moved along with plans that promised enhanced aeromobility and economic growth. The aim is to follow the runway’s material qualities through several layers of discourse. It touched upon environmental, medical, economic, political and cultural concerns. The discourse analysis will place the runway within a network of material and social relations, following the categories developed in the Actor-Network-Theory by Bruno Latour and others. Installations like aviation infrastructures have obtained a cultural meaning and are thus socio-technological systems that challenge the distinction between knowledge based expert regimes and laypeople, especially as they are caught in an entanglement of expertise and counter-expertise. The runway stands for two kinds of mobilizations, one within a system of globalized connections, and another within a social movement that mobilized public protest and alternative forms of knowledge to reach their objectives.