Chernobyl – Turning Point or
Catalyst? Changing Practices, Structures and Perceptions in
Environmental Policy and Politics (1970s-1990s)
International Conference, 2 - 3 December 2016
Heinrich-Boell-Foundation (HBS), Schumannstr. 8, D-10117 Berlin, Germany
Convenors: Christoph Becker-Schaum (
Heinrich-Boell-Foundation), Jan-Henrik Meyer (
Copenhagen/
HoNESt) and Marianne Zepp (
Heinrich-Boell-Foundation)
In cooperation with the
Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Munich,
HoNESt – History of Nuclear Energy and Society Project, and the
Center for Metropolitan Studies (TU Berlin).
Does
Chernobyl constitute a turning point in the history of environmental
policy and politics? Around the world environmental policy was
introduced in the early 1970s as a new policy area and arena of
political and societal conflict. However, from mid-1970s onwards, as a
result of the oil crisis, the new policy came to be increasingly
challenged, and considered an obstacle to traditional economic growth
objectives. Notably in West Germany, environmental policy’s great leap
forward only happened in the 1980s. The debate about the dying forests
led to the introduction of new filter technologies and catalytic
converters to stop acid rain from killing trees and harming people. It
was the shock of Chernobyl, however, that convinced the West German
government to eventually establish a separate ministry of the
environment at the federal level.
This conference has two aims:
First, it seeks to assess
change in environmental politics and policy making
– from its beginnings around 1970 until the 1990s, when the Rio
Conference definitely lifted environmental issues to a global scale with
the breakthrough of the sustainability agenda and the increasing
dominance of the climate change issue. While the early phase of
environmental policy is increasingly well-covered by environmental
history, we know very little about the subsequent development of the
policy.
Against this backdrop, we seek to examine
to what extent and how environmental policy and politics changed during
the first thirty years of their existence. Transformations may have
concerned political, administrative, societal, and media practices and
structures as well as problem perceptions. The conference’s goal is to
uncover, in particular, the conditions for change, ruptures, intercepted
developments and roads not taken.
Secondly, the conference aims at re-assessing the
importance of the Chernobyl nuclear accident for change in environmental policy and politics.
Did Chernobyl actually constitute a turning point? Did Chernobyl really
strengthen environmental policy, by bringing environmental issues back
to the centre of political attention? What were the consequences of
Chernobyl for the perception of environmental policies? What was the
impact on political and societal action, mobilisation and structures?
Did Chernobyl offer new windows of opportunity for environmental policy
makers.
We will also discuss an alternative interpretation: Is it
more appropriate to consider Chernobyl rather as a catalyst where the
different environmental debates, growing environmental consciousness and
ecological concerns of the 1980s came together to accelerate and
strengthen environmental policy. Next to the lasting conflict about
nuclear power this included concerns about the visible environmental
problems such as dying forests and polluted water, and increasingly also
invisible and global concerns about the hole in the ozone layer and
climate change. We will look beyond national borders: How does the West
German response compare to other European countries – a question that
seems relevant with a view to the German phase-out after Fukushima?
The conference seeks to focus on the different actors that shaped environmental policy:
(1) Political parties,
(2) Courts of law, government administrations and bureaucracies, and scientific experts,
(3) environmental movements,
(4) business groups, utilities and industry and
(5) media.
All
of these different actors did not only discuss environmental issues
from their respective perspectives. They also interpreted environmental
problems differently and offered divergent solutions. These include, for
instance, the growing interest in market solutions and ideas about
green growth and ecological modernisation. These actors engaged in
environmental policy at – but routinely also across - different levels –
the local, regional, national, but also at the European and
international levels.
The starting point of the debate will be the
experience in the Federal Republic of Germany, which however needs to
be understood in its European and international context, involving
transnational linkages and experiences from other countries in a
comparative perspective.
Conference languages are both German and English (simultaneous translation is provided). The event is open to the public.
The
aim of the conference is to prepare for a tightly integrated
publication. Thus all contributors are invited to explicitly address
both questions outlined above. We suggest analysing the role of one or
several actors in order to cover the issue of change in environmental
policy in a broader perspective in a first part. In a second part,
contributors may zoom in on the impact and consequences of Chernobyl on
the policy and the responses and reactions of their respective actors.
Please submit your proposal (title, abstract [150 - 200 words], biographical note [150 words]) to
becker-schaum@boell.de;
j.h.meyer@hum.ku.dk;
zepp@boell.de
by 31 July 2016.
Travel and accommodation costs for speakers will be covered by HBS.
Download the English and German Version of the CFP:
https://www.academia.edu/26367688/CFP_Chernobyl_Turning_Point_or_Catalyst_Changing_Practic...
Article published by Jan-Henrik Meyer on H-Net on Tuesday, June 21, 2016
