Paper Short Abstract:

The paper examines local struggles for hegemony in the context of 'green transitions' in Central Germany. It shows how the strategies employed by mobility transition actors also reinforce neoliberal modes of governance.

Paper Abstract:

This paper adopts a Gramscian perspective to examine local political processes in the Saalekreis in Saxony- Anhalt around the aim of decarbonizing (passenger) mobility and shifting it towards cycling and the use of public transport.

The Saalekreis aims to become a role model for a successful industrial transformation and a sustainable society, which makes it a worthwhile example to explore the proclaimed 'sustainability transition'. Since the processes are heavily influenced by political guiding principles and initiatives from ‘above’, I use the concept of hegemony (Gramsci 1971) to examine the socio-cultural struggles around local future making. On the basis of my qualitative data collected through ethnographic field research, I show how hegemony, in the sense of creating cultural leadership for the ‘transformation, is organized locally. I thereby focus on how a model project for strengthening public transport advances particular sets of meanings through building alliances, having specific interests able to gain recognition and using certain knowledges, expertise and framings.

I suggest that in the material context of fierce competition for financial resources the attempts to shift mobility are integrated into hopes of re-industrialization, economic development and technological progress through specific hegemonic practices, which adhere to neoliberal techniques of governance. I thus argue that organizing consent for the transformation goes along with reinforcing neoliberal modes of governing.