"Ethnographies of Transformation: Crafting Post-Coal Futures in Eastern Germany" Field: Anthropology of the future, transformation, the environment

2020年7月3日，为响应全球应对气候变化、减少二氧化碳排放和退出化石燃料的呼吁，德国政府通过立法，到2038年逐步淘汰煤炭，到2050年95%的能源来自可再生能源。除了淘汰煤炭工业和扩大可再生能源部门，该计划还设想通过培育创新产业和通过当地设计的“结构转型”过程推进农村发展，使该国的煤炭地区“适应未来”（zukunftsfähig）。其核心主题是可持续能源供应、技术创新和公民参与，这种转变位于当代三个危机时刻的交叉点：环境危机、资本主义危机和民主危机。我的研究将集中在东德组织“结构转型”的独特经验上，这个术语让人们想起了20世纪90年代统一的“结构性断裂”（去工业化和私有化，数千人下岗，数百万人外迁，以及以前繁荣的城镇和村庄的清空）。在关注经济、农村和工业发展方面，后煤炭转型与后社会主义转型的这些创伤是相互联系的。这使得东德成为一个有趣的研究地点，在这里，对过去和未来的取向必须通过谈判和组织变革来调和。在12个月的实地考察中，我将跟随公民、政治和企业参与者，在一个体现了国家假设转型的复杂性、官僚主义复杂性和不平衡性的地区，探索后煤炭时代的未来。三个问题将指导我的研究：(1)后煤炭未来的项目提出了哪些问题，并设想解决哪些问题？(2)地方行动者如何处理行政结构、理想发展情景和地理现实之间的冲突？(3)同一地区的居民对后煤炭时代未来的看法，以及与结构转型相关的希望和恐惧有何不同？我的研究涉及关于危机和不确定条件下生活的学术辩论；资本主义和去工业化下的空间生产；资本和人员流动的影响；以及农村和城市、人类和环境之间的区别。它遵循当代人类学的呼吁，将人类中心研究扩展到地理、基础设施和生态领域，并致力于探索人们如何应对挑战熟悉的政治和空间组织结构的复杂问题。

On 3 July 2020, responding to global calls to combat climate change, reduce CO2-emissions, and exit from fossil fuels, the German government passed legislation to phase out coal by 2038 and derive 95% of energy from renewable sources by 2050. In addition to decommissioning the coal industry and expanding the renewable sector, this plan envisions making the country's coal regions 'fit for the future' (zukunftsfähig) by fostering innovative industries and advancing rural development through locally designed processes of 'structural transformation' (Strukturwandel). With its core themes of sustainable energy provision, technological innovation, and civic participation, this transformation is situated at the intersection of three contemporary moments of crisis: of the environment, of capitalism, and of democracy. My research will focus on the distinctively Eastern German experience of organising 'structural transformation', a term which reminds people of the 'structural ruptures' of reunification in the 1990s (deindustrialization and privatization, thousands of layoffs, outmigration in the millions, and the emptying of formerly thriving towns and villages). In its focus on economic, rural, and industrial development, the post-coal transformation interlinks with these wounds of post socialist transformation. This makes Eastern Germany an intriguing research site where orientations towards the past and the future must be reconciled in the present through the negotiation and organisation of change.During twelve months of fieldwork, I will follow civic, political, and corporate actors as they navigate the crafting of post-coal futures in an area that exemplifies the complexities, bureaucratic intricacies, and uneven nature of the nationally postulated transformation as it meets local realities. Three questions will guide my research:(1) What issues do projects for the post-coal future problematize and envision to fix?(2) How do local actors navigate conflicts between administrative structures, ideal developmental scenarios, and geographical realities?(3) How do perceptions of the post-coal future, and the hopes and fears tied to structural transformation, differ among inhabitants of the same area?My research speaks to scholarly debates about life in conditions of crisis and uncertainty; the production of space under capitalism and deindustrialization; the implications of the mobility of capital and people; and about distinctions between rural and urban, humans and the environment. It follows contemporary calls for an anthropology that expands anthropocentric research to geographical, infrastructural, and ecological domains, and it is dedicated to the exploration of timely questions about how people operate in response to complex issues that challenge familiar structures of political and spatial organisation.