Piotr Solga, Socio-political context of renewable energy sources in German, Lusatian, open-pit mines of lignite

Unstructured interviews were conducted in Bautzen and its surroundings in April 2015. The region has a long history of lignite mining – the practice which often leads to the necessity of displacement of whole communities. When the study was conducted the region was also threatened with the risk of loosing its core mining investor (Vattenfall). The reason for such a move was the change of climate and energy policy implemented by German federal authorities. Another important factor in shaping the attitudes in the region is the presence of Sorbian minority. Faced with the displacements connected with the mining and destruction of the region's natural environment, the Sorbs are deeply concerned with keeping their ethnic and cultural identity Respondents were reached by the "snowball" method. The aim of the study was to capture and report on various perspectives on economically important, multi-aspect industrial and energy investments, which interfere vastly with the environment and have huge impact on everyday life of the people living in the region. The study also aimed at establishing the people's view on renewable energy sources as an alternative for the present state of socio-economic affairs, which are closely tied with industrial and energy sector. The results of the study should also reveal potential groups of interests and division lines created in society as a result of the aforementioned situation. Theoretical structuralist background (Beger and Luckmann 2010) directed the authors of the study towards the assumption that all attitudes would both have declared and factual base – which may differ. At the same time, this approach requires to record every narration – even if there are reasons to doubt in its sincerity. Whenever such a doubt arose, we would supplement the narration with commentary on factual (and not only declared) view points and attitudes. Analysis conducted in such a way should present a clear picture of social situation, constructed around the problem of lignite mining and renewable energy sources visible in the analyzed region. At the same time, it should be underlined that the characteristics of Lusatian region cannot be easily likened to other local communities or, even less so, to wider (e.g. national) perspective. On the other hand, we can spot some universal tendencies in some narrations (attitude towards ecology, feeling of insecurity, fear of the new and the unknown), which is a basis for applying the middle range theory (Merton et all, 2002) – the theory describing relatively abstract socio-political, or even ethnical and cultural, context of multi-aspect technological changes on local level. Main conclusion which can be drawn from the interviews is that there is a universal, strong need for stable, well-paid jobs – a dominant element present in interviewees’ statements. This need clearly affects an attitude towards mining industry in the region. When it comes to renewable energy sources, they were treated with skepticism. They were not regarded as an alternative for the present situation, and the relation between them and the problem of lignite mining was clearly ignored.