Tesla vs. Trees: An Agonistic Look at the Conflict Over e-mobility, Forest Clearance and Planning Law Related to a Suburban Landscape Near Berlin, Germany

This article is about a landscape conflict that has been triggered by the plan to clear a piece of forest in Grünheide (Mark) near Berlin in February 2020 in order to build a so-called Gigafactory of the Tesla company there. The aim is to analyse and discuss this conflict from the perspective of agonistic pluralism. Taking the form of a discourse analysis based on newspaper articles, the study intends to answer two questions: What positions were taken in the respective media debate, and which actors and organisations supported these positions? The analysis reveals three main discourses, which differ in the specific concerns that are represented and rejected. The adoption of agonistic pluralism as a theoretical lens draws attention to issues of depoliticisation and repoliticisation and to the productive potential of conflict.