Abweichendes Verhalten, soziale Kontrolle und Kriminalisierungsprozesse im Kontext von Klimaprotest

[Deviant Behaviour, Social Control and Criminalization Processes in the Context of Climate Protest]

Due to man-made global warming, planetary tipping points are threatening to be exceeded, which will seriously change both ecosystems and social contexts. In order to articulate this problem and demonstrate for (political) change (such as decarbonization), various social movements have been forming in recent years/decades, publicly referred to primarily as the climate movement.

Forms of action by the climate movement are understood as social protest and take the form of demonstrations, school strikes, defacement of art objects or road and runway blockades. The social and media reactions to these protests are immense. There have been calls for harsher penalties in Germany since 2022, particularly in connection with actions by the Last Generation.

The habilitation project, which operates in the disciplinary context of criminology, political sociology and radicalization and discourse research, is dedicated to the discursive field, i.e. various patterns of interpretation and perspectives on climate protests and the associated norm-breaking and criminalization processes.

Methodologically, a systematic literature review on the (empirical, scientific) thematization of deviant behaviour or intentional norm-breaking (especially civil disobedience) by climate movements will be written. Furthermore, an analysis of the German-language media discourse will be carried out. Finally, a qualitative interview study will be conducted with people who are involved in the climate movement.