The project
The Coal Rush and Beyond
Investigating coal reliance, climate change, and contested futures
Project summary:
Globally, coal extraction and burning has been booming in the last decade. This inter-disciplinary project investigates the 'coal rush' in sociopolitical terms, asking how coal reliance emerges, and whether it might be superseded. We seek explanations of why new coal mines and coal-fired power stations are constructed, investigate social conflicts centred on new coal facilities, and analyse what social factors may enable transition from coal. Local sites, three national contexts, and transnational connections will be compared to develop a nuanced understanding of coal. The research team is undertaking a 3 year study of coal in Australia, Germany and India.
Research agenda:
-
To analyse the political economy of coal across local, national and transnational contexts, and investigate how this relates to energy and climate policy in Australia, Germany and India;
-
To undertake historical and social analysis of reliance on coal in selected case study localities in 3 countries;
-
To investigate how the lived experience, material exposure to coal mining, and ethical commitments of people in coal mining communities in the selected case study communities shapes the contestation of coal;
-
To understand how this local contestation impacts on (and is influenced by) the ways in which coal is culturally constructed and contested in media and other public domains in the selected countries;
-
To use the results of interdisciplinary comparative analysis to develop new theoretical insights into pathways to the transition from coal.
Chief investigators:
James Goodman, Devleena Ghosh, Linda Connor, Tom Morton, Stuart Rosewarne
Partner investigators:
Dipesh Chakrabarty, Ortwin Renn
Research associates and assistants:
Jon Marshall, Kanchi Kohli, Manju Menon, Rebecca Pearse, Katja Mueller, Sharon Davidson
Funding Organisation:
Australian Research Council (ARC Discovery Projects)
2014-2016