Phasing out identities? Narratives of coal workers’ struggles in Lusatia’s energy transition process

Sammanfattning: In 2020, the German government introduced a legislation to phase-out coal mining and combustion by 2038. Expert reports state that this is too late for Germany to meet its obligations from the Paris Agreement. For many people in Lusatia, one of the three coal mining areas in Germany, even the 2038 coal-exit is happening too fast. They fear for their economic and personal future in the coal-mining region. Workers in the sector are considered the most vulnerable - not just their jobs might be made redundant, but their identities as miners or workers in power-plants may suffer under the phase-out. Embedding this thesis in the field of political ecology, I drew on just transitions discourses and investigated the social implications of energy transitions for lignite workers in Lusatia. Employing a narrative methodological approach, the focus of the thesis’ investigation are the stories of four workers employed in Lusatia’s lignite sector. Through the thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews and walking interviews, narratives of their energy epistemics, energy landscape perceptions and energy justice claims are retold and reveal these categories to be identity-constituting. By discussing the narratives, the multiple links between lignite workers’ identities and their respective epistemics and landscapes were revealed, and out of the associated justice claims, proposals were developed. Synergies between the knowledge that the interviewees drew from their work and education and their perceptions of the landscapes and vice versa were depicted, which ultimately were discovered as influential on who they are, how they want to live and who they want to become. All interviewees agreed that a clear, reliable phase-out with financial assurances for the workers is needed if they are to be able to adapt their identities to a structural change of the region. In light of this conclusion, this paper suggests testing and expanding on the findings presented. Valuing workers’ identities in low-carbon transitions can be key to just transition processes. Further research should therefore explore how exactly the recognition of these identities can be reflected in procedures and policies in a just and respectful manner and how workers themselves can participate in these processes.