Contested River Politics in Europe: The Impact of Polish and German Oder River Protection Networks (1989 – 2024)

This paper examines how opposition from within Polish and German civil society has established itself, since 1989, in response to national and bi-national river policies concerning the Oder River. Due to its long history as a political border, the Oder has remained one of the most pristine rivers in Europe. Yet, its shallow riverbed makes it particularly vulnerable to ice jams as well as to flooding and low water levels. The Oder has thus also become a “seismograph” of climate change in the face of global warming. Given the diverging river policy interests concerning economic development measures and environmental renaturation, the paper analyses the dynamics between transnational, Oder-related politics and the actions of Oder protection alliances emerging from civil society. The guiding question investigates the impact which activities of environmental NGOs have had on agenda-setting, on the construction of their own organisational structures, and on influencing political outcomes, as of now. On a theoretical level, the paper argues that two superordinate points of contention determine the success of environmental activism: firstly, the antagonism between “green and growth”, which often prioritises economic considerations over nature conservation; and, secondly, the political divide between right-wing populist and left-green positions (the GALTAN cleavage). Conceptually, the paper contributes to the establishment of river politics as a new transdisciplinary field of political analysis. It also adds to social ovement research, which investigates the effects of the involvement of civil society in water protection under the conditions of climate change.