David vs. Coal-iath: Coalition-building in the anti-coal protests in Lützerath, Germany

Abstract: For social movements to create social change they need to mobilize resources, seize political opportunities, and foster favourable discourses. To do so, they engage in coalition building processes to streamline their action and resources with related groups. This process can also be observed in the village of ‘Lützerath’, Germany, which shall be swallowed by the coal mine ‘Garzweiler 2’. To analyse the process of coalition building a micro-ethnography was conducted. Using a framework which I have derived from a literature review by Van Dyke and Amos (2017) and applied to the case of ‘Lützerath’, my study confirms that factors such as social ties, ideological congruence and political opportunities were favourable conditions and shows how they influenced the emergence and longevity of the coalition. These findings may inform other protests with a similarly diverse set of actors highlighting an example of how to bridge gaps between climate activists and local communities.