Past and present (landscape) conflicts about the cellular network expansion in Germany

The use of mobile communications has become an unquestioned part of everyday life around the world in the twenty-first century. However, the process of establishing and further developing cellular technology often went and goes along with conflicts. Strong support has been and continues to be met with opposition and protest. Against this background, this article focuses on two key phases of the development of cellular technology in Germany: from 1998 to 2002 during the introduction of UMTS/3G and from 2018 to 2021 in the context of the expansion to the 5G standard. With respect to the two phases, I aim to trace central negotiation processes and compare them. Particular attention will be paid to landscape-related conflicts. A discourse-theoretical perspective based on Chantal Mouffe and Ernesto Laclau provides the theoretical framework to identify central hegemonies and upheavals at the same time. Methodologically, the contribution is based on the evaluation of media components and interviews with stakeholders. Results show that both past and current expansion projects have been or are being accompanied by social resistance caused by fears of potential risks and/or questions about whether an expansion was necessary. In turn, it is apparent that the increased use of mobile radio coincides with an increased acceptance of the technology, even though concerns about the effects of electromagnetic fields on the human body remain. There have been and continue to be conflicts over the installation and operation of transmitters. Thus, physical manifestations in the landscape have become discursively anchored, but they are connected to arguments of fears and concerns, not aesthetic arguments as is the case with the wind power expansion.