Knowledge base for Ore Mountains case study: Difference between revisions

Abstract: Many voices call for better transboundary coordination and management of ecological networks. Little, though, is known about the kind of transboundary cooperation currently going on in establishing ecological networks across European borders. The objective of the present research is to gain an empirical overview of transboundary cooperation in establishing ecological networks on Germany's external borders, to analyse reasons why such cooperation is launched and why some border regions seem to be more active in this than others, and finally to identify shortfalls in current practice and potential remedies. The empirical analysis is guided by a theoretic framework which includes hypotheses on: (1) the institutional context, (2) structural and situational contexts, (3) actors with their resources, orientations and interests, (4) actor constellations, and (5) ideas, symbols and discourses. The methodology consists of a literature review, a comprehensive internet survey in combination with exploratory expert interviews, and a series of semi-structured, open-ended, in-depth interviews. We identified 34 transboundary cooperation projects in establishing ecological networks across Germany's external borders in the period 2003–2007, the majority of which was located at Germany's western borders. Many factors that had been derived theoretically were borne out by the interviews. However, hypotheses on the influence of NGOs and on international institutions and organisations seem to be of specific explanatory value. In practical terms we recommend intensifying the flow of knowledge and information between practitioners in this field and strengthening the ties between ecological network planning and spatial planning in transboundary contexts.<br>  

*Glassheim, E. (2007). [http://www.czp.cuni.cz/vcsewiki/images/8/88/Most%2C_the_Town_that_Moved.pdf Most, the Town that Moved: Coal, Communists and the ʻGypsy Questionʼ in Post-War Czechoslovakia] Environment and History 13: 447–76.<br>

 

As Czechoslovakiaʼs communist planners continually increased norms for power and coal production in the 1950s through 1970s, the sprawling surface mines of the north Bohemian brown coal basin expanded voraciously, swallowing 116 villages and parts of several larger cities by 1980. Infamously, the entire historic centre of Most was obliterated in order to expose over 85 million tons of coal. Planners envisioned a new city of Most as a model of socialist modernity. Deriding Mostʼs old town as a decaying capitalist relic, officials lauded New Mostʼs spacious and efficient prefabricated high-rises. Adding to the contrast, the majority of Old Mostʼs remaining inhabitants by 1970 were Roma (Gypsies). For communists, the Roma evoked an old order of segregation, class oppression and bad hygiene. By relocating Roma to modern housing, they could ʻliquidate once and for all the Gypsy problemʼ. This article examines the rhetorics of modernity employed as communists sought to ʻsolveʼ intertwined coal, gypsy and housing ʻproblemsʼ in the city of Most. At the crossroads of several related modernising projects in the twentieth century, Most provides insight into connections between ethnic cleansing, social and environmental engineering and urban planning.<br><br>