Environmental Conflicts in Austria from 1950 to 2015
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SOCIAL ECOLOGY WORKING PAPER 1 6 9 Stefan Wendering Env ironmental Conflicts in Austria from 1950 to 2015 ISSN 1726 -3816 May 2016 Stefan, Wendering (2016): Environmental Conflicts in Austria from 1950 to 2015 Social Ecology Working Paper 169 Vienna, May 2016 ISSN 1726-3816 Institute of Social Ecology Vienna (SEC) Alpen-Adria-Universitaet Klagenfurt, Vienna, Graz (AAU) Schottenfeldgasse 29 1070 Vienna, Austria www.aau.at/sec sec. [email protected] © 2016 by Institute of Social Ecology Vienna Environmental Conflicts in Austria from 1950 to 2015* von Stefan Wendering * Masterarbeit verfasst am Institut für Soziale Ökologie (IFF-Wien), Studium der Sozial- und Humanökologie. Diese Arbeit wurde von Assoc. Prof. Mag. Dr. Martin Schmid betreut und von Dipl. Ing. Dr. Willi Haas vorbegutachtet. Abstract During the second half of the 20th century, Austria experienced a fundamental transition of its energy regime. Within few years oil replaced the predominant regime of biomass and coal. This change had not only radical impacts on society's production and consumption patterns but most notably on society's relationship to nature. During the post-war modernisation process, nature and landscapes were dramatically transformed by human biophysical activities. However, with growing impacts, this development was increasingly questioned by parts of society and environmental conflicts emerged. The master thesis assembles Austria's environmental conflicts that took place around the transition's material manifestations dams, power plants, infrastructure projects described through the prism of social ecology. A comprehensive review of literature, newspapers and the internet, supplemented by selected experts and contemporary witness interviews, created an extensive list of 108 environmental conflict cases in Austria after World War II. The cases are analyzed by a set of selected indicators and cases of high significance are described in detail to illustrate the patterns and trends of Austria's environmental conflict history. Therefore, the thesis responds to the key question how the nature of environmental conflicts changed in the course of the industrialisation and modernisation processes by excavating and interrelating conflict causes, issues at stake and its impacts, and conflict outcomes. The main objective of this thesis is, primarily, to show how environmental conflicts resulted from diverging imaginations of the future and lacking governance. Secondly, the thesis documents how environmental conflicts influenced Austrias decision-making and its political and institutional landscape. Finally, a contemporary reflection on environmental conflicts helps not only to challenge future conflicts but also to determine the preconditions and constraints for a sustainability transition. Although the developed classification of environmental conflict cases can be further improved, it provides a useful reference for future research on environmental conflicts, i.e. in other countries. 3 Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... 3 List of Figures ................................................................................................................................. 5 List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. 5 List of Environmental Conflicts ...................................................................................................... 6 Chapter One: Introduction .......................................................................................................... 13 1.1 Preliminary remarks ......................................................................................................... 13 1.2 Scope and limitations ....................................................................................................... 14 1.3 Research questions .......................................................................................................... 15 1.4 Research objectives ......................................................................................................... 16 1.5 Design of the thesis .......................................................................................................... 17 Chapter Two: Theoretical framework gaining a socio-ecological perspective on conflicts ..... 18 2.1 Starting point: a conflict .................................................................................................. 18 2.2 What makes a conflict environmentally? ........................................................................ 19 2.3 The socio-ecological perspective on environmental conflicts ......................................... 21 2.3.1 The human-nature relationship ............................................................................... 21 2.3.2 Socio-ecological regimes .......................................................................................... 24 2.3.3 The socio-ecological transition in Austria ................................................................ 25 2.3.4 Environmental conflicts in the light of socio-ecological transitions ........................ 26 Synopsis: Environmental Conflict ........................................................................................... 28 Chapter Three: Mapping environmental conflicts aspects of conflict classifications .............. 30 3.1 Case data collection ......................................................................................................... 30 3.2 Selection of cases ............................................................................................................. 31 3.3 Challenges of analyzing environmental conflicts ............................................................. 32 3.4 The concept of environmental justice ............................................................................. 33 3.5 Selection of indicators ..................................................................................................... 34 3.6 Overview of indicators ..................................................................................................... 36 Chapter Four: Environmental conflict fields in Austria ............................................................... 41 4.1 Results of the indicator analysis ...................................................................................... 41 4.2 Cross-comparison of indicators ....................................................................................... 45 4.3 Selected cases of high significance .................................................................................. 50 4.3.1 The myth of Kaprun ................................................................................................. 50 4.3.2 Hohe Tauern The Krimml Falls............................................................................... 51 4.3.3 The long shadow of Zwentendorf ............................................................................ 52 4.3.4 Hainburg 1984 .......................................................................................................... 54 4.3.5 'Lobau-Autobahn' ..................................................................................................... 55 Chapter Five: Discussion ............................................................................................................. 58 5.1 Characteristics of environmental conflicts in Austria ...................................................... 58 5.2 Hotspots of environmental conflicts ................................................................................ 63 5.3 Environmental justice ...................................................................................................... 68 Chapter Six: Conclusions ............................................................................................................. 70 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 73 4 List of Figures Figure 1: The socio-ecological human-nature interaction model developed by Fischer-Kowalski et al. 1997 (own illustration). ....................................................................... 23 Figure 2: Socio-metabolic input-output scheme (Krausmann and Erb 2012). ......................... 24 Figure 3: Overview of the actors that get involved in environmental conflicts in Austria. The figure is based on Schmid and Winiwarter 2012. ................................................ 35 Figure 4: The stages on which environmental conflicts take place according to the social metabolism model: input, stocks, and output (figure based on Krausmann and Erb 2012). ................................................................................................................................. 38 Figure 5: Map of environmental conflicts in Austria - geographical and typological distribution. .............................................................................................................................. 42 Figure 6: Distribution of the environmental conflict cases according to the EJOLT typological classification. .......................................................................................................... 43 Figure 7: Indicators used for the analysis of environmental conflicts in Austria. ...................