Urgent Repair

The overarching aim of the project is to gain knowledge about the processes of rewilding open coal mines and how these landscapes are transformed into 'livable environments' in Germany within the context of the coal phase-out and climate urgency. More specifically, I intend to collaborate with local communities, officials, publicly active groups, and non-profit organizations to track their activities and understand their roles and positions in gradually revitalizing and rewilding landscapes that are transitioning away from their industrial past. My focus is on engaging with local communities, public officials, NGOs, etc., to gain insight into the issues of "livable environment," "climate urgency," "(bio)diversity," as well as to understand their perspectives on the gradual renewal and rewilding of these previously industrial areas in the Middle-German-Coal-District. I'm primarily interested in how they perceive the landscape and how these positions and expert knowledge are (or are not) integrated with the scenarios for the urgent repair of the coal landscapes.

Doctoral Candidate: Helena Böhmová

I'm currently a Ph.D. candidate with the C-Urge Doctoral Network of Anthropology of Global Climate Urgency (by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions). I'm based at the Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology at Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, where I'm working under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Asta Vonderau (MLU). I earned my master's degree at the University of Hradec Králové (CZ) at the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies. My study background is rather transdisciplinary, focusing mostly on philosophy, ethics, and social anthropology. My thesis project was strongly rooted in social anthropology, namely in the question of climate and landscape change from the perspective of those who experience it on a daily basis. The project aimed to provide a platform for the often unheard stories of local people and was methodologically influenced by the interdisciplinary research project Climate Walk. In my current position, I aim to further deepen my understanding of the processes and perspectives behind the changing landscape and issues of rewilding and revitalization.