Abstract
The environmental conflict about the construction of a large cement factory in Tmaň, a small town South of Prague, bordering the nature protected area of the Česky Kras, embodies some of the central features of post-socialist society: the privatisation of state-owned firms by foreign capital, the emergence of citizen initiatives, the formation of new democratic structures on the local level, and the creation of a public sphere through independent media. Nature conservation and limited resource use entered as new elements into the debates of opposing political fractions that had previously turned around concepts of planned and market economy. Differences of worldviews and projects for society that went beyond the divide into capitalist or socialist ideas took shape and became visible. The article analyses the arguments of the proponents and opponents of the project and examine what ideas about society the images of nature recreated and nature preserved evoke. It then shows in what larger historical and political context these ideas inscribe themselves and how they are negotiated and transformed in the current local political context. Key words: post-socialist society, privatization, conservation of nature, images of nature, local politics, Czech Republic.
Highlights
Nature conservation and limited resource use entered as new elements into the debates that had opposed concepts of planned and market economy
Approaching Tmaň from Beroun climbing up the hills of the Česky Kras one is suddenly struck by the sight of a majestic hill cut in half by an imposing quarry
National and international environmental organisations, politicians and lawyers followed the case with great interest, as it became the testing Journal of Political Ecology
Summary
The environmental conflict about the construction of a large cement factory in Tmaň, a small town South of Prague, bordering the nature protected area of the Česky Kras, embodies some of the central features of post-socialist society: the privatisation of state-owned firms by foreign capital, the emergence of citizen initiatives, the formation of new democratic structures on the local level, and the creation of a public sphere through independent media. The projected construction of a large cement factory and the intensification of quarrying close to a natureprotected area intensified a public debate about the projects for post-socialist Czech society. Approaching Tmaň from Beroun climbing up the hills of the Česky Kras one is suddenly struck by the sight of a majestic hill cut in half by an imposing quarry In front of it a dust covered limestone factory stands in stark contrast to the lush meadows and fields. National and international environmental organisations, politicians and lawyers followed the case with great interest, as it became the testing
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