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Contribution short abstract

The study examines a water conflict in Thuringia, Germany, where changes in dam management intensified droughts and triggered a multidimensional conflict. First insights reveal a trend toward depoliticization and limited policital deliveration.

Contribution long abstract

Although water in Germany has long been perceived as an abundant and free resource, reports of shortages and emerging conflicts are becoming increasingly significant. In contrast to the rich body of political-ecological research on water struggles in the Global South, the German case has received far less scholarly attention. The aim of the poster is to bring existing research in political ecology into dialogue with the conflicts now unfolding within highly bureaucratized contexts of the Global North in order to broaden and refine the conceptual tools of the field. This poster therefore presents insights into a water conflict in Thuringia, Germany, where recent changes in dam management have amplified river droughts and triggered disputes over distributive justice, water rights, and the legitimacy of administrative decisions.

The case demonstrates how normative debates over water allocation were strategically reframed as disputes over scientific and technical facts – an act of depoliticization that obscured underlying inequalities and limited democratic deliberation. By examining how bureaucratic procedures, and infrastructural path-dependencies shape socio-ecological conflicts, the study highlights dimensions of environmental governance.

The poster aims to place conflicts in Germany alongside those in the Global South, enabling mutual theoretical enrichment. The case illustrates how political ecology’s core questions travel and transform in different institutional settings. At the same time, studying conflicts in highly regulated contexts can sharpen political ecology’s understanding of administration, technocracy, and the subtle mechanisms through which inequality is (re)produced.

The poster thus invites a comparative conversation on resource governance across diverse socio-ecological contexts.