Spatial Transformation Processes of Energy Transition – Analytical and Design Perspectives from Gender Studies in Spatial Planning
Final Report Abstract
The project addresses the energy transition as a sustainability-orientated spatial and planningrelated socio-ecological transformation process. The energy transition refers to a reorganisation of the German energy system in which the share of renewable energies in particular is to be further expanded. The ongoing changes to the legal framework, including the expansion of wind energy in Germany, as well as the energy crisis associated with the Russian war in Ukraine, illustrate the internationality, complexity and non-linearity of the processes within which spatial planning has to operate. From a spatial planning perspective, the emergence of so-called energy landscapes and spatial governance processes are important topics in the energy transition. These are still largely unexplored from the perspective of gender research. It is known from gender planning that gender perspectives are able to draw attention to marginalisations and hierarchies (e.g. in relation to norms, forms of knowledge, concepts of work and economic understandings). With regard to sustainable spatial development, gender perspectives contribute to both intra- and intergenerational justice as well as to the integration of different development dimensions (ecological, economic, social, cultural). In the theoretical part of the project, intersectional gender perspectives on spatial transformation processes of the energy transition were formulated, building on our own preliminary work. A distinction is made between gender as an individual perspective, a structural perspective and a process perspective as well as an epistemological perspective. A project result based on this is the development of the planning-related heuristic “EnerGesch”. Against the background of the four gender perspectives the heuristic formulations critical questions to energy transition processes that can be applied in empirical studies. In the empirical part of the project, the expansion of wind power plants in Reinhardswald in northern Hesse and the expansion of solar and wind power plants on former lignite mining areas in Jänschwalde in Brandenburg's Lusatia region were analysed. Although the results of the qualitative interview studies are regionally specific, the contributions of social-scientifically orientated energy transition research become clear: When asking whether and to what extent the energy transition contributes to spatial transformations towards sustainability, it is particularly important from a gender perspective to ask what effects the transformation processes have on the gendered supply economy, to what extent profits are distributed (unequally), which people or knowledge bases are included or excluded in planning and decision-making processes and where and how dichotomies are created, manifested or dissolved.
Link to the final report
https://freidok.uni-freiburg.de/data/270092
Publications
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Die Energiewende als räumlicher Transformationsprozess: Forschungsprojekt an der ARL verbindet raum- und planungswissenschaftliche Zugänge mit Zugängen der Geschlechterforschung. In: Neues Archiv für Niedersachsen, Zeitschrift für Stadt-, Regional- und Landesentwicklung (2), 116-118.
Mölders, T. & Hülz, M.
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Energiewende und Gerechtigkeit. Geschlechterperspektiven als Augenöffner. In: Politische Ökologie 41 (172), 60-65.
Herdlitschka, T. & Kapitza, K.
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Geschlechterperspektiven auf räumliche Transformationsprozesse der Energiewende. In: Nachrichten der ARL 52 (2/3), 42-45.
Herdlitschka, T.; Hülz, M.; Kapitza, K. & Mölders, T.
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Energielandschaften nachhaltig:er gestalten? Geschlechterperspektiven auf räumliche Transformationsprozesse der Energiewende. RaumFragen: Stadt – Region – Landschaft, 133-151. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
Dankers, Johanna; Herdlitschka, Theresa; Kapitza, Katharina & Mölders, Tanja
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Geschlechterperspektiven auf Landschaft. RaumFragen: Stadt – Region – Landschaft, 485-495. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
Dankers, Johanna; Herdlitschka, Theresa; Kapitza, Katharina & Mölders, Tanja
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Nachhaltigkeitsforschung und Geschlechterperspektiven: intersektionale Ansätze zur Analyse sozial-ökologischer Transformationen. GENDER – Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft, 16, 104-120.
Herdlitschka, Theresa; Dankers, Johanna; Kienesberger, Miriam; Kapitza, Katharina & Mölders, Tanja
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Gender – Macht – Energiewende. transcript Verlag.
Mölders, Tanja; Dannenberg, Janina; Herdlitschka, Theresa; Hülz, Martina & Kapitza, Katharina
