The mill and the bird. A fable of Germany’s energy transition
Type de matériel :
2
In terms of wind power generation, Germany is currently ranked third in the world and first in Europe. But its windfarms are fiercely disputed, in particular because of their devastating impact on birds, which are massively killed by the blades of wind turbines. In this conflictual context, a bird of prey called the red kite ( Milvus milvus) – or Rotmilan in german – has become one of the emblems of anti-wind movements nationwide. Providing a digital discourse analysis of a large media corpus (± 500 press articles), this contribution thus investigates the claims and the representations surrounding red kites. In dialogue with various approaches to the politics of non-humans stemming from actor-network theory (ANT), we make observations on the structure of hybrid collectives wherein non-humans are associated with humans. To be more specific, in that the notion of spokesperson is a key element of such collectives, we argue that the actantial model featured by ANT is bound to a conception of politics based on discursive agency, which leads non-speakers and therefore non-humans astray.
Réseaux sociaux