Tracing a caring transition policy for the German coal region Lusatia

Abstract

Coal mining and generation adversely affect several ecosystems, including climate, water and land. On the other hand, questions of justice and socio-economic considerations of affected regions are crucial for a successful coal phase-out, underlining the need for a nexus perspective. This includes taking a gender perspective, which thus far has received relatively little attention. We contribute to closing this gap through our study on the coal region Lusatia in Germany, where an unprecedentedly high amount of money is spent to shape the regional transition. The allocation of these funds is the subject of a contentious debate about which societal needs are considered most urgent to be met. We conducted a critical discourse analysis examining relevant policy documents and analyzing dominant ideas about what a successful transition in Lusatia should look like. Based on feminist care theory and interviews with locally organized women, we show that concepts of care for humans and nonhumans are severely underdeveloped. To address this gap, we propose based on women’s emerging discourse four pillars of care work as social infrastructure that should be central to transition processes: (1) aftercare for social and ecological residuals of coal mining, (2) social cohesion, (3) democratic care services, and (4) caring democracy: democratic decision-making on how to care.