Contested ecologies in Eastern Europe: Crises, politics, and activism (Geography section of the German Association for East European Studies (DGO))

Abstract

Russia’s 2022 invasion caused ecological havoc within Ukraine. It also had more indirect effects on environmental regulations and policies, and further issues, in neighbouring countries and internationally. Authoritarian tendencies in some Eastern European countries have an increasing impact on state environmental governance as well as activism, while past involvement of Western European countries and the EU in respective policy fields brought mixed results. The climate crisis, too, has an increasing impact on eco-politics in the region. Drawing on diverse, rich, and longstanding engagement with ecological issues in different Eastern European countries, the panellists address current events and their environmental implications, and geographers’ and activists’ responses to them. They also give insights into the longer traditions of environmental research and activism in ‘the region’, and how these matter for thinking about and conceptualizing political ecology and environmental issues more broadly and beyond this region.

This panel is presented by the Geography Section of the German Society for Eastern European Studies (DGO)/ Fachgruppe Geographie der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Osteuropakunde (DGO).