Discussion: The “Green Transition” and its Costs for the Balkans: Resisting Authoritarian Extractivism in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia

The Event is a cooperation by Promotionskolleg JUST – Gerechte und Nachhaltige Transformation, Global Labour University Kassel and ZBOR – Zdruzeni Balkanski Otpor i Rad

Arnold-Bode 8 / uzay 0113/0114, Kampüs Hollanda mahkemesi

The language of discussion will be English/Die Diskussion wird auf Englisch stattfinden.

Mining projects are on the rise in the Balkans, especially in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. They are advertised as projects for green development of impoverished deindustrialized peripheries of the European Union. However, given the power imbalances between the capitalist European core countries and the post-Yugoslav region and the power imbalances between local political and economic elites on the one hand and workers on the other, the reality of extractivist projects looks different. Only a small share of the produced wealth remains in the region, whereas forests, water and agricultural soil are damaged. Throughout the Balkans, protest movements against authoritarian extractivism in the name of green transition have emerged, most visibly in Serbia against lithium mining, but the resistance is broader and it is growing. It is this conflictual and contradictory tension, that we want to engage with in our panel discussion.

ılımlılık: Aleksandra Draganic (Global Labour University)

Panel discussants: Activists from Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, Carla Noever Castelos, (Kassel Üniversitesi), Edlira Xhafa (GLU Online Academy) and others (tba)