Spatial Transformation Processes of Energy Transition – Analytical and Design Perspectives from Gender Studies in Spatial Planning

• Applicants: Dr. Martina Hülz; Professorin Dr. Tanja Mölders
• Subject Area: Urbanism, Spatial Planning, Transportation and Infrastructure Planning, Landscape Planning
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 440992053

The energy transition refers to a transformation process of the German energy system whereby the proportion of renewable energies should be further increased and energy efficiency and energy saving significantly enhanced. The development and adaptation involved here have spatial consequences and impact on both the physical and social dimensions of regions, presenting spatial and landscape planning with new challenges. Two important topics can currently be identified in this context and are to be explored in the proposed project: first, with a material focus, the emergence of energy landscapes, and, second, with a procedural focus, spatially related governance which is linked to issues of public participation and public acceptance of the new technologies.These spatial transformation processes of energy transition have not to date been explored or empirically investigated using the perspectives of gender research. The project is based on the belief that gender research will act as an eye-opener for marginalisation and hierarchisation, opening up new potentials for planning analysis and action. Gender approaches have the ability to uncover differences and inequalities – e.g. between actors, in (spatial) structures and processes and in relation to forms of knowledge – and to make visible the relations of power and domination inscribed in them.. The aim of the research is to generate fundamental knowledge on this research desideratum in the form of gender-specific system knowledge, target knowledge and transformation knowledge, based on original preliminary work. This should contribute towards creating a theoretical basis and planning operationalisation and generate initial systematic empirical findings from the perspectives of gender research. An additional aim is to produce a planning science heuristic based on various gender perspectives so as to further develop planning-related knowledge for the research and management of the spatial transformation processes of energy transition.The research design operationalises the analytical approaches of gender research by distinguishing between four perspectives: gender as a category of difference, as a structural category, as a process category and as an epistemological category. The research project is divided into seven work packages. The empirical research objects are selected according to regional transformation processes induced by the energy transition, and analysed in four regional case-studies. The implementation of the project will reveal the potentials of gender research in the context of a sustainable transformation of the energy system and thus also create a foundation for further research.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants