Ungehört Ungehorsam

By Tabea Gleiter

Supervisor: Dr. Gesa Lüdecke

With the noticeable increase in the use of civil disobedience in environmental activism in recent years, questions such as “How important is school attendance compared to protesting for action on climate change?” or “Is it a moral obligation or an attack on the rule of law to prevent deforestation in the Hambach Forest by occupying it?” have entered the broader public debate. These topics soon made their way into my personal coffee and dinner conversations with fellow students from the ESCP, as well as with family members and friends. However, even after having listened to many very different opinions throughout these discussions, I still found it difficult to identify and clearly articulate my own position. I came to the conclusion that I was still lacking a holistic view of the historical roots and evolution of civil disobedience and a detailed knowledge of the most important philosophical, political, and legal arguments for and against it.

It was from here that the idea for my final project arose. I decided to dig deeper into the topic and to produce a radio feature that was intended to help not only myself but also other listeners to form their own opinions by providing neutral information.

The result, whose final shape emerged after some experimentation during the production process, is a 1.5 hour long radio feature, which combines an interdisciplinary mixture of theoretical perspectives and current developments within the practical experience of environmental activists from Extinction Rebellion and Klimaliste. The radio feature therefore provides a mixture of perspectives from those who advocate for civil disobedience and those who do not. The feature centers around excerpts from interviews with other students in Munich who belong to these two groups, and it covers a wide spectrum of aspects ranging from historical role models such as Rosa Parks to the use of violence in coal mine strikes and forest blockades.

If you are interested in hearing the radio feature, please let me know by contacting the RCC. I am more than happy to distribute my work; that's what it is made for! However, please be aware that it is in German language.

Moreover, I would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you again to my wonderful interview partners Alex, Charlotte, Lena, Lisa, Milena, Rebekka, and Sascha for our very insightful conversations, which made this project possible!