Just Transition For Whom/What?

Getting up at 3:50am for ornithological mapping, riding in a combine harvester during the harvest, breakfast at the Imperial Hotel with representatives of the State Investment and Development Company, alarming the volunteer fire department about a burning tree, the ethical dilemma of whether to go to the flood site, driving around the fields looking for yellow-bellied toads. This is just a sketch of situations I had no idea I would experience when I contacted my supervisor in June 2023 that I would like to conduct ethnographic research on just transformation in the Moravian-Silesian region.

This research found its anchorage in Dolní Lutyně, where a gigafactory is planned to be built. In March 2024, the government approved the start of preparations for this project by an unknown foreign investor, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the aforementioned State Investment and Development Company were put in charge of coordination. The proponents of the project present it as a green modern project with a high added value, which through a 200 billion CZK investment and the creation of up to 7000 jobs can become an important part of the economic transformation of the region after the decline of coal mining. On the other hand, opponents of the project (mainly from the side of the locals) point out that the selected site is located on arable land, in a floodplain and in a close proximity to the Special Protection Area Heřmanský stav-Odra-Poolší and human dwellings.  

And there comes me, an environmental anthropologist-in-progress and ask:

• In what contexts and forms does nature enter the process?

• Is there a clash of different perspectives on nature? For example, climate and conservation one?

• Who among the human and more-than-human actors is resisting the plan to build the strategic industrial park Lutyně?

• Is the practice of multispecies justice manifested here? If so, in what forms?