Document Type

Article

Version

Postprint

Publication Title

German Studies Review

Volume

30

Publication Date

2007

Abstract

Protest mobilization is often assumed to be temporary. This is not the case in Germany, as a look at grassroots mobilization in Berlin reveals. Protest arose there in the 1970s, as in Germany generally, over siting of a large energy project. Activists attacked not only the project itself, but also the legitimacy of the technocratic policymaking that produced it. Subsequent government efforts to streamline land-use planning have kept the legiti mation issue alive. Lacking an institutional home for citizen participation in planning, protesters in Berlin and elsewhere continue to play a vital role in forcing policymakers to take residents' views seriously.

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